`compgen -A file -G './tmp/*.sh` unexpectedly shows ALL the files in directory ./ as well as the desired ones

Question

I expected that

compgen -A file -G './tmp/*.sh'

would show only files under tmp/, but it also showed all files in the current directory.

I have tried

compgen -A file -X  '!(tmp/*.sh)'

and

compgen -A file -X  "!(tmp/*.sh)"

but both result in null output. Checking settings:

$ shopt|grep extglob
extglob         on

It's also worth noting that

compgen -A file tmp/*.sh

returns only the first valid candidate. Incidentally, this exactly matches the default line completion result, e.g.

cp tmp/*.sh[TAB]

and

ls tmp/*.sh[TAB]

both expand out to only the first candidate.

Two questions:

Why?
Any way to get the expected result using only compgen?

The 'expected result' is for all the matching candidates to be returned, as would happen with ls tmp/*.sh

Your first command `-A files` is not valid as `files` is not a valid action name — Inian, Jun 25 '20 at 17:23
Ditto. And if it was `file` then I *guess* `compgen -A file -G './tmp/*.sh'` is like `compgen -A file; compgen -G './tmp/*.sh'`. — Kamil Maciorowski, Jun 25 '20 at 17:27
@KamilMaciorowski - That's the answer - my mistake was assuming that '-A file' was required when dealing with filenames. Using only '-G 'tmp/*.sh' will give the desired result. — Craig Hicks, Jun 25 '20 at 17:51
No time for high quality answer now. I won't mind if you answer. — Kamil Maciorowski, Jun 25 '20 at 17:54

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 25 '20 at 18:49

@KamilMaciorowski's comment gave the answer.

My mistake was assuming that '-A file' was required when dealing with filenames. Using only -G 'tmp/*.sh will give the desired result.

The mistaken assumption resulted from there being many -A options, e.g. file, host, etc. However, when -G is used, the domain being filenames is implicit because globs only work with filenames.

`compgen -A file -G './tmp/*.sh` unexpectedly shows ALL the files in directory ./ as well as the desired ones

1 Answers1