Public bug reported:
Steps to reproduce (minimal test case):
Type following command without actually running it (copy pasting this
text is okay):
find -type f -exec echo {} +
move cursor to location after `find` and type something (e.g. "_") and
press tab. The result should be
find _[TAB HERE] -type f -exec echo {} +
which should result in bash completion showing directories that start
with an underscore. Instead of that we get the current line overwritten
with the error message
bash: COMP_POINT: substring expression < 0
and the prompt is reset to empty string.
The trigger for this bug seems to be the `-exec` part of the command. If
you replace that with `-print` and keep everything else as-is, the tab
completion works as expected (even though `-print echo {} +` makes no
sense as argument to `find`).
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 22.04
Package: bash 5.1-6ubuntu1.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 6.8.0-65.68.1~22.04.1-lowlatency 6.8.12
Uname: Linux 6.8.0-65-lowlatency x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_modeset nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu82.10
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: unknown
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
Date: Fri Aug 22 17:24:53 2025
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-01-05 (2420 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180725)
RebootRequiredPkgs: Error: path contained symlinks.
SourcePackage: bash
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to jammy on 2023-08-11 (742 days ago)
modified.conffile..etc.init.d.apport: [modified]
mtime.conffile..etc.init.d.apport: 2025-05-30T10:33:32.233549
** Affects: bash (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
** Tags: amd64 apport-bug jammy
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2121228
Title:
tab completion fails with "bash: COMP_POINT: substring expression < 0"
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