Completion Commands

GNU Emacs Manual. Node: Completion Commands

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4.3.2: Completion Commands

Here is a list of the completion commands defined in the minibuffer when completion is available.

`TAB`	Complete the text in the minibuffer as much as possible (`minibuffer-complete`).
`SPC`	Complete the minibuffer text, but don't go beyond one word (`minibuffer-complete-word`).
`RET`	Submit the text in the minibuffer as the argument, possibly completing first as described below (`minibuffer-complete-and-exit`).
`?`	Print a list of all possible completions of the text in the minibuffer (`minibuffer-list-completions`).

SPC completes much like TAB, but never goes beyond the next hyphen or space. If you have `auto-f' in the minibuffer and type SPC, it finds that the completion is `auto-fill-mode', but it stops completing after `fill-'. This gives `auto-fill-'. Another SPC at this point completes all the way to `auto-fill-mode'. SPC in the minibuffer when completion is available runs the command minibuffer-complete-word.

Here are some commands you can use to choose a completion from a window that displays a list of completions:

`Mouse-2`	Clicking mouse button 2 on a completion in the list of possible completions chooses that completion (`mouse-choose-completion`). You normally use this command while point is in the minibuffer; but you must click in the list of completions, not in the minibuffer itself.
`PRIOR` `M-v`	Typing `PRIOR` or `PAGE-UP`, or `M-v`, while in the minibuffer, selects the window showing the completion list buffer (`switch-to-completions`). This paves the way for using the commands below. (Selecting that window in the usual ways has the same effect, but this way is more convenient.)
`RET`	Typing `RET` in the completion list buffer chooses the completion that point is in or next to (`choose-completion`). To use this command, you must first switch windows to the window that shows the list of completions.
`RIGHT`	Typing the right-arrow key `RIGHT` in the completion list buffer moves point to the following completion (`next-completion`).
`LEFT`	Typing the left-arrow key `LEFT` in the completion list buffer moves point toward the beginning of the buffer, to the previous completion (`previous-completion`).

Completion Example

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Strict Completion