5.3 Filename completion

Filename completion works with tramp for completion of method names, of user names and of machine names (except multi-hop methods) as well as for completion of file names on remote machines. In order to enable this, Partial Completion mode must be set on.

If you, for example, type C-x C-f /t <TAB>, tramp might give you as result the choice for

     telnet:				   tmp/
     toto:

`telnet:' is a possible completion for the respective method, `tmp/' stands for the directory /tmp on your local machine, and `toto:' might be a host tramp has detected in your ~/.ssh/known_hosts file (given you're using default method ssh).

If you go on to type e <TAB>, the minibuffer is completed to `/telnet:'. Next <TAB> brings you all machine names tramp detects in your /etc/hosts file, let's say

     telnet:127.0.0.1:		   telnet:192.168.0.1:
     telnet:localhost:		   telnet:melancholia.danann.net:
     telnet:melancholia:

Now you can choose the desired machine, and you can continue to complete file names on that machine.

As filename completion needs to fetch the listing of files from the remote machine, this feature is sometimes fairly slow. As tramp does not yet cache the results of directory listing, there is no gain in performance the second time you complete filenames.

If the configuration files (see Customizing Completion), which tramp uses for analysis of completion, offer user names, those user names will be taken into account as well.