8

I use symlinks a lot and pretty much linked my whole home directory into a folder .other or .dotfiles. When I'm im my home directory and try to got into the folder .config/, its actually a symbolic link to .other/.config/.
If .config/ was a normal directory I could just type cd .con and hit tab. Bash would automatically expand it to .config/ (as long as there are no other files/directories starting with .con). Unfortunately bash has this little hurdle, when navigating through symlinks: Bash only expands to .config (not .config/) and I have to hit tab another time to add the / (to got further).
This is just minor, but is there a possibility to get bash to add a slash even after symlink expansion?

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
15

Set the mark-symlinked-directories readline option.

The usual way to do this is to edit ~/.inputrc, put

set mark-symlinked-directories on

in there, then start a new bash shell (or press Ctrl+X Ctrl+R to reload your readline settings).

Less commonly, you could also put it straight in your ~/.bashrc like this

bind 'set mark-symlinked-directories on'
Improve this answer
4
  • Wow, thank you! Is the ~/.inputrc a part of bash or where does it belong to? Can I add it to my ~/.bash_profile instead? Commented Jan 26, 2016 at 22:40
  • Ok, it doesn't work in ~/.bash_profile. No problem just another file for .dotfiles... Commented Jan 26, 2016 at 22:50
  • You can actually do bind 'set mark-symlinked-directories on' in any bash config file (or in the bash shell) if you prefer. Commented Jan 26, 2016 at 22:51
  • Thank you so much. Would be a little unpleasant to create a new file for just one line of code... Commented Jan 26, 2016 at 22:55

You must log in to answer this question.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.