---
name: "vis-complete"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "vis"
version: "0.9.r501.g254329d9-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/vis-complete"
---

# vis-complete(1)

Interactively complete file or word

## NAME

**vis-complete** – Interactively complete file or word

## SYNOPSIS

**vis-complete** \[**--file** \| **--word**\] \[*--*\] *pattern*

**vis-complete** **-h** \| **--help**

## DESCRIPTION

**vis-complete** takes a pattern on the command-line and completes file or word and displays them in a menu for the user to select one. Once the user has selected a completion, the completion (excluding the pattern) is printed to standard output.

**vis-complete** uses [vis-menu(1)](/vis-menu/1.md) as its user-interface, so see that page for more details.

- **--file**

  This passes *pattern* to **find** to obtain a list of matching file names (this is the default).

- **--word**

  This reads standard input to obtain a list of lines matching *pattern*.

- **--**

  An argument following this token will be treated as pattern, even if it would otherwise be a valid command-line option.

  If encountered after a previous instance of -- it is treated as a pattern.

- *pattern*

  The pattern to be completed by file or word.

- **-h** \| **--help**

  If present, **vis-complete** prints a usage summary and exits, ignoring any other flag and arguments.

## EXIT STATUS

The **vis-complete** utility exits 0 on success, and \>0 if an error occurs.

In particular, like [vis-menu(1)](/vis-menu/1.md), **vis-complete** prints nothing and sets its exit status to 1 if the user refused to select a file.

## SEE ALSO

[vis(1)](/vis/1.md), [vis-menu(1)](/vis-menu/1.md)

## BUGS

Because **vis-complete** uses [find(1)](/find/1.md) to obtain the list of files, weird things might happen if you have control-characters in your filenames.