Sometimes the redirect does not expand in bash completion

Question

Sometimes when I do the following

somecmd arg1 arg2 > ~/Deskto<TAB>

it correctly expands to "Desktop". Other times when I do it it does not expand. Is this the fault of bash or of the command? My guess is it is the fault of bash because it works even when the command has no completion. How do I investigate the root problem?

Answer 1

This is the fault of the programmable completion for this command.

You can:

1. Use filename completion instead of programmable completion for that argument:

   somecmd arg1 arg2 > ~/DesktoAlt+/

2. Disable programmable completion for that command:

   complete -r yourcommand