[PATCH b4] Support python argcomplete

[PATCH b4] Support python argcomplete

[Jason Gunthorpe]

argcomplete is a alternative to shtab. While shtab provides an option to
generate unique matching patterns for each program, argcomplete has a
general completion hook that identifies compatible programs and
dynamically pulls the completion out of the program itself.

This means that once argcomplete is enabled in the shell every compatible
program automatically and effortlessly gets full shell completions that
are perfectly up to date with the active version. When running out of a
git check out this is a big improvement over shtab since completions Just
Work with no need to specially manage the shtab files.

The boilerplate is setup so the argcomplete module is optional, if the
user has it installed (and presumably enabled it for their shell) then it
is activated.

Signed-off-by: Jason Gunthorpe <jgg@nvidia.com>
---
 b4.sh             | 1 +
 src/b4/command.py | 7 +++++++
 2 files changed, 8 insertions(+)

diff --git a/b4.sh b/b4.sh
index e3fbb100be0f98..e47c5b68dbe6da 100755
--- a/b4.sh
+++ b/b4.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
+# PYTHON_ARGCOMPLETE_OK
 #
 # Run b4 from a git checkout.
 #
diff --git a/src/b4/command.py b/src/b4/command.py
index 8a8c96f635af67..803ed333346372 100644
--- a/src/b4/command.py
+++ b/src/b4/command.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python3
+# PYTHON_ARGCOMPLETE_OK
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later
 # Copyright (C) 2020 by the Linux Foundation
@@ -1331,6 +1332,12 @@ def setup_parser() -> argparse.ArgumentParser:
 
 def cmd() -> None:
     parser = setup_parser()
+    try:
+        import argcomplete
+        argcomplete.autocomplete(parser)
+    except ImportError:
+        pass
+
     cmdargs = parser.parse_args()
     logger.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
 

base-commit: 362b87aa4d036884c36e4bfb9cdbdee626aba3bf
-- 
2.43.0

Re: [PATCH b4] Support python argcomplete

[Konstantin Ryabitsev]

On Fri, 07 Aug 2026 20:17:32 -0300, Jason Gunthorpe wrote:
> Support python argcomplete

I've applied it, but note that this immediately fails ci.sh. I'll fix it 
up as a follow-up.

[1/1] Support python argcomplete
      commit: f6b44c86c5c7b26f0979fe56ad76c40df11b9ccb

Best regards,
-- 
Konstantin Ryabitsev <konstantin@linuxfoundation.org>

Re: [PATCH b4] Support python argcomplete

[Jason Gunthorpe]

On Tue, Aug 11, 2026 at 11:28:18PM +0000, Konstantin Ryabitsev wrote:
> 
> On Fri, 07 Aug 2026 20:17:32 -0300, Jason Gunthorpe wrote:
> > Support python argcomplete
> 
> I've applied it, but note that this immediately fails ci.sh. I'll fix it 
> up as a follow-up.

Thanks I had not discovered that! I will try it in future.

FWIW I am trying to use the b4 review to organize my unmanagable pile
of patches to look at. It seems very promising, though I have a small
list of pain points I may write up or try and fix :)

Jason