`_get_comp_words_by_ref` not found

[srsudar]

This emerged from a discussion on a PR at the bash-completion repo.

When I start up bash and source the completions file I get an error when trying to tab complete. I type tmux at and hit <tab>, expecting for it to show me the options starting with attach. Instead I get the error: bash: _get_comp_words_by_ref: command not found added to my command line.

I use zsh these days over bash, so it is possible something has gone wonky with my bash setup. I can tab-complete other things.

The full terminal session is below.

bash-4.2$ ls
README.md       completions
bash-4.2$ source completions/tmux
bash-4.2$ tmux atbash: _get_comp_words_by_ref: command not found

[srsudar]

And I should add that I am on a Mac, using bash 4.2 according to that copied code above.

[imomaliev]

Looks like you have older version of bash-completion. _get_comp_words_by_ref was added in 1.2 https://github.com/scop/bash-completion/blob/master/CHANGES#L1166.

[srsudar]

Yep you're right. Thanks for the help.

I suggest putting something in the README about a dependency on bash_completion, or on a preferred distribution mechanism that might take care of this automatically. To the best of my knowledge (at least on Mac), bash_completion has to be installed and managed by the user. When I encountered the error and didn't see any setup instructions in the README, I assumed all I had to do was source it.