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I have two machines, laptop and server. Both of them source /etc/bash_completion in .bashrc.

What works:

server$ scp file laptop:~/stage/[tab][tab] server$ scp laptop:~/stage/[tab][tab] . server$ rsync -r folder laptop:~/stage/[tab][tab]

What doesn't work

laptop$ scp file server:/data/[tab][tab] laptop$ scp server:/data/[tab][tab] . laptop$ rsync -r folder server:/data/[tab][tab]

The laptop is running ubuntu 16.04 and the server is running 18.04.

server

rsync version 3.1.2

scp/ssh don't take --version

laptop

rsync version 3.1.1

scp/ssh don't take --version

Both machines have the other's public key, and ssh (as well as actual rsync/scp transfers) work without password. Clearly everything is set up as it works one way, but I can't figure out what would be causing it to fail in the other direction?

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  • I can reproduce this on Debian. Looking at the /usr/share/doc/bash-completion/changelog.Debian.gz file, I have 1:2.1-4.3 for the one that completes but only 1:2.0-1 for the one that doesn't. If you get a similar difference it may simply be that the newer version completes more accurately. Commented Nov 2, 2018 at 23:23
  • That directory doesn't exist on laptop - which prompted me to check, /etc/bash_completion doesn't exist either - I'm missing a package. What do I have to install on the laptop? Commented Nov 8, 2018 at 17:07

1 Answer 1

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I've found the solution - bash-completion package was never installed on the laptop.

It's a misleading issue, because in .bashrc the source of the file is correct, and it doesn't throw an error. However the file never existed.

The bashrc does check, however for /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion which does exist. Why it doesn't work, I don't know.

sudo apt install bash-completion fixes the issue.

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