Re: How to disable Windows style completion cycling?

[Oliver Kiddle <okiddle@yahoo.co.uk>]

Ed Singleton wrote:
> I’ve recently switched from bash to zsh, and generally it’s been
> a positive experience, except for the fact that I can’t work out how
> to switch off the Windows style cycling of completions when you press
> <tab>. I much prefer bash’s refusal to guess, where it only completes
> any unambiguous part of the match and does nothing else except show
> options.

> I’ve tried setting (and unsetting) MENU_COMPLETE, and other options from the completion section of setopt.  

Have you tried unsetopt auto_menu?

> I’ve tried using zstyle and setting `zstyle ':completion:*' menu no-select`

That ought to work too if you have compinit enabled which I would
recommend (autoload -U compinit; compinit).
Perhaps try including the default tag in the style:

  zstyle ':completion:*:default' menu no-select

> If anyone has got any tips on how to turn it off, or good terms that I
> should be googling, I’d be very grateful. (I’m slightly hampered in
> that I don’t know the correct term for it, so it’s hard to google).

If I've understood you correctly, it is termed menu completion, at least
in a zsh context.

By default, you should only get it after pressing tab twice in
succession. There's a BASH_AUTO_LIST option if you like the bash
behaviour of having to use an extra tab press to get a listing.

Oliver