If you keep getting an error message “_get_comp_words_by_ref: command not found” when you try bash completion for custom command with completion script, it means the bash-completion package is not installed. Tab completion feature is used to automatically complete commands or suggest options when you press Tab.
Fix _get_comp_words_by_ref: command not found
A fix for “_get_comp_words_by_ref: command not found” is to install bash-completion package. The commands to run varies from one Linux distribution to another, depending on the package management tool you use.
Install bash-completion on CentOS / RHEL:
sudo yum -y install bash-completion
Install bash-completion on Fedora:
sudo dnf -y install bash-completion
Install bash-completion on Ubuntu / Debian
sudo apt install bash-completion
Install bash-completion on macOS:
brew install bash-completion
After installing bash-completion on your system. Logout of current session:
$ logout
Login back and source your completion script.
$ source /path/to/completion/script
If source command has been added to ~/.bashrc file, then just run:
$ source ~/.bashrc
Now try using tab completion. See example below.
$ oc
adm cancel-build delete extract logout plugin replace serviceaccounts
annotate cluster-info describe get logs policy rollback set
api-resources completion diff idle new-app port-forward rollout start-build
api-versions config edit image new-build process rsh status
apply convert ex import-image new-project project rsync tag
attach cp exec kustomize observe projects run version
auth create explain label options proxy scale wait
autoscale debug expose login patch registry secrets whoami
I hope this guide helped you to fix “_get_comp_words_by_ref: command not found” error on your Linux / macOS terminal.
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