Why is bash completion being loaded so slow on OS X?

Question

I don't understand why bash completion is loaded so slow on my MacBook Pro.

I did the following in my ~/.bash_profile:

echo "Loading BashCompletion..."
if [ -f /opt/local/etc/bash_completion ]; then
    . /opt/local/etc/bash_completion
fi
echo "BashCompletion loaded."

the execution time for bash_completion typically is > 2 seconds.

I find that really annoying when I am working on the terminal which requires me to constantly open new tabs.

Is there a way I can cache this or something?

(Note I am using iTerm2 and this is equally slow on the original terminal in Mac as well).

Answer 1

If you're running MacPorts >= 2.1.2 and Mountain Lion it seems your bash_profile is wrong. Follow the instructions on How to get git-completion.bash to work on Mac OS X?. I assume that could speed up the auto-completion.

Another solution would be to try installing auto-complete via Fink or Homebrew. If that doesn´t work, you could try another shell altogether. I've found that Fish shell is outstanding when it comes to auto-completion (out of the box). Though version 2 is still in beta I would highly recommend it.

Answer 2

I'm going to guess that your bash is too old. I'm running stock bash that came with Mountain Lion and here's what I see:

$ port info bash-completion
bash-completion @2.0, Revision 1 (sysutils)

Description:          Programmable completion library for bash. This port
                      **requires bash >=4.1** and is meant to be used together with
                      the bash port.
Homepage:             http://bash-completion.alioth.debian.org/

Runtime Dependencies: bash
Conflicts with:       bash-completion-devel
Platforms:            darwin
License:              GPL-2+
Maintainers:          raimue@macports.org

$ bash --version
GNU bash, version **3.2.48(1)-release (x86_64-apple-darwin12)**
Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.