Unable to interrupt slow filename generation

Unable to interrupt slow filename generation

[Jérémie Roquet]

Hi everyone,

When I use filename generation, for example, something like this:

$ echo **/*<tab>

or:

$ echo **/*<enter>

I'm expecting that hitting ctrl+c will interrupt the very slow
filename generation, and it looks like it's indeed the case.

However, when I use the “estring” glob qualifier, I'm unable to
interrupt filename generation. Eg:

$ echo *(e:sleep 10:)

If I hit ctrl+c, it interrupts the “sleep” process, but not filename
generation. I have to interrupt that process once per generated
filename — but most of the time there are too much files to do this.
The only “solution” I've found to stop this kind of filename
generation is to kill the shell, which is not satisfactory either, as
you could have guessed.

Does anyone know 1) if this is the expected behaviour 2) if so, if
this is desirable and 3) if so, if there is a way to give up this kind
of filename generation without losing the shell¹?

Thanks in advance, best regards,

¹ Actually, I've found that ctrl+z + kill all the shell child
processes + fg sort of works, but that's a bit cumbersome.

-- 
Jérémie