How to configure git bash command line completion?

Question

On Linux

On most distributions, git completion script is installed into /etc/bash_completion.d/ (or /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/git) when you install git, no need to go to github. You just need to use it - add this line to your .bashrc:

source /etc/bash_completion.d/git
# or
source /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/git

In some versions of Ubuntu, git autocomplete may be broken by default, reinstalling by running this command should fix it:

sudo apt-get install git-core bash-completion

On Mac

You can install git completion using Homebrew or MacPorts.

Homebrew

if $BASH_VERSION > 4: brew install bash-completion@2 (updated version) Pay special care which version of bash you have as MacOS default ships with 3.2.57(1)-release.

add to .bash_profile:

  [[ -r "/usr/local/etc/profile.d/bash_completion.sh" ]] && . "/usr/local/etc/profile.d/bash_completion.sh"

For older versions of bash: brew install bash-completion

add to .bash_profile:

[ -f /usr/local/etc/bash_completion ] && . /usr/local/etc/bash_completion

MacPorts

sudo port install git +bash_completion

then add this to your .bash_profile:

if [ -f /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion ]; then
    . /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion
fi

more info in this guide: Install Bash git completion

Note that in all cases you need to create a new shell (open a new terminal tab/window) for changes to take effect.

i had same issue, followed below steps:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/git/git/master/contrib/completion/git-completion.bash -o ~/.git-completion.bash

then add the following lines to your .bash_profile (generally under your home folder)

if [ -f ~/.git-completion.bash ]; then
  . ~/.git-completion.bash
fi

source : http://code-worrier.com/blog/autocomplete-git/

Most of the instructions you see will tell you to download

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/git/git/master/contrib/completion/git-completion.bash

and source that in your bash startup script like .bashrc.

But there is a problem with that, because it is referencing the master branch, which is the latest version of git-completion.bash. The problem is that sometimes it will break because it is not compatible with the version of git you've installed.

In fact, right now that will break because the master branch's git-completion.bash has new features that requires git v2.18, which none of the package managers and installers have updated to yet. You'll get an error unknown option: --list-cmds=list-mainporcelain,others,nohelpers,alias,list-complete,config

So the safest solution is to reference the version/tag that matches the git you've installed. For example:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/git/git/v2.17.1/contrib/completion/git-completion.bash

Note that it has a v2.17. in the URL instead of master. And then, of course, make sure to source that in the bash startup script.

Ubuntu 14.10

Install git-core and bash-completion

sudo apt-get install -y git-core bash-completion

• For current session usage

  source /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/git
  

• To have it always on for all sessions

  echo "source /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/git" >> ~/.bashrc
  

See https://github.com/git/git/blob/master/contrib/completion/git-completion.bash

You just need to source the completion script