Shell Programming and Scripting

Hello,
I have a very weird problem with my ssh connection. After I log on the server for a while, when I wanted to change directory by pressing Tab key to save some typing, my connection to the server is lost!

First I checked my bash-completion setting, which I could not find any problem with, as I use exactly the same setting with my other severs with exactly the same OS (Debian, Linux server1 3.10-1-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.10.3-1 (2013-07-27) x86_64 GNU/Linux), where I do not have this problem.

I then checked my shell environment, which is bash for both my default and current shell.

It might be related to my ssh connection configuration on time-out settings, but my ssh connection settings are the same for the other servers. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi,

Hmm, that is odd. OK, first question: does this happen no matter whereabouts in the filesystem you are ? In other words, does tab completion only disconnect you if you try to use it in one particular place (a sub-directory of your home directory, say), or does it happen even if you're somewhere else, like / or /tmp, say ?

Any directory, but I never worked in / though.

Hi,

OK, thanks. It could be that for some reason Bash is segfaulting or otherwise crashing when it tries to do tab completion. To check that, try the following.

Anyway, just a thought - this might at least tell us if it's Bash that's dying, or if something else is going on.

On the remote box only:

Add this to your ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login, or ~/.profile on the remote box:

Code:

# enable bash completion in interactive shells
if [ -f /etc/bash_completion ]; then
    . /etc/bash_completion
fi

Thanks!

Code:

3. Type echo $SHLVL to see your current shell level
$> 2

 4. Try to do tab completion.  You'll probably end up back at a Bash prompt right away
$> (That did not happen, and nothing seemed wrong!)

5. Do echo $SHLVL again.  If the number has gone down by one, then that's what's happening - Bash is crashing on tab completion attempts
$> 

I did not see anything abnormal following to your instruction.
By the way, I should mentioned that Tab completion problem did NOT happen every time I press the Tab key, but only after certain period of time once I'm logged in, that's why I said it might be related to time-out setting. I did not measure how long that period is either.

---------- Post updated at 03:49 PM ---------- Previous update was at 03:45 PM ----------

Thanks Jim:
I have those lines in my ~/.bashrc. Do I have to put them into any of those files you mentioned?

Are you inactive for a while before trying the TAB?

Perhaps its an SSH timeout you could try ServerAliveInterval 120 in your client ~/.ssh/config to send a NULL packet every 120 seconds to avoid timeout disconnects.