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(elisp)Completion Commands

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Minibuffer Commands that Do Completion
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   This section describes the keymaps, commands and user options used in
the minibuffer to do completion.

 - Variable: minibuffer-local-completion-map
     `completing-read' uses this value as the local keymap when an
     exact match of one of the completions is not required.  By
     default, this keymap makes the following bindings:

    `?'
          `minibuffer-completion-help'

    <SPC>
          `minibuffer-complete-word'

    <TAB>
          `minibuffer-complete'

     with other characters bound as in `minibuffer-local-map' (Note:
     Text from Minibuffer).

 - Variable: minibuffer-local-must-match-map
     `completing-read' uses this value as the local keymap when an
     exact match of one of the completions is required.  Therefore, no
     keys are bound to `exit-minibuffer', the command that exits the
     minibuffer unconditionally.  By default, this keymap makes the
     following bindings:

    `?'
          `minibuffer-completion-help'

    <SPC>
          `minibuffer-complete-word'

    <TAB>
          `minibuffer-complete'

    `C-j'
          `minibuffer-complete-and-exit'

    <RET>
          `minibuffer-complete-and-exit'

     with other characters bound as in `minibuffer-local-map'.

 - Variable: minibuffer-completion-table
     The value of this variable is the alist or obarray used for
     completion in the minibuffer.  This is the global variable that
     contains what `completing-read' passes to `try-completion'.  It is
     used by minibuffer completion commands such as
     `minibuffer-complete-word'.

 - Variable: minibuffer-completion-predicate
     This variable's value is the predicate that `completing-read'
     passes to `try-completion'.  The variable is also used by the other
     minibuffer completion functions.

 - Command: minibuffer-complete-word
     This function completes the minibuffer contents by at most a single
     word.  Even if the minibuffer contents have only one completion,
     `minibuffer-complete-word' does not add any characters beyond the
     first character that is not a word constituent.  Note: Syntax
     Tables.

 - Command: minibuffer-complete
     This function completes the minibuffer contents as far as possible.

 - Command: minibuffer-complete-and-exit
     This function completes the minibuffer contents, and exits if
     confirmation is not required, i.e., if
     `minibuffer-completion-confirm' is `nil'.  If confirmation _is_
     required, it is given by repeating this command immediately--the
     command is programmed to work without confirmation when run twice
     in succession.

 - Variable: minibuffer-completion-confirm
     When the value of this variable is non-`nil', Emacs asks for
     confirmation of a completion before exiting the minibuffer.  The
     function `minibuffer-complete-and-exit' checks the value of this
     variable before it exits.

 - Command: minibuffer-completion-help
     This function creates a list of the possible completions of the
     current minibuffer contents.  It works by calling `all-completions'
     using the value of the variable `minibuffer-completion-table' as
     the COLLECTION argument, and the value of
     `minibuffer-completion-predicate' as the PREDICATE argument.  The
     list of completions is displayed as text in a buffer named
     `*Completions*'.

 - Function: display-completion-list completions
     This function displays COMPLETIONS to the stream in
     `standard-output', usually a buffer.  (Note: Read and Print, for
     more information about streams.)  The argument COMPLETIONS is
     normally a list of completions just returned by `all-completions',
     but it does not have to be.  Each element may be a symbol or a
     string, either of which is simply printed, or a list of two
     strings, which is printed as if the strings were concatenated.

     This function is called by `minibuffer-completion-help'.  The most
     common way to use it is together with
     `with-output-to-temp-buffer', like this:

          (with-output-to-temp-buffer "*Completions*"
            (display-completion-list
              (all-completions (buffer-string) my-alist)))

 - User Option: completion-auto-help
     If this variable is non-`nil', the completion commands
     automatically display a list of possible completions whenever
     nothing can be completed because the next character is not
     uniquely determined.