Emacs auto-complete not displaying results

autocomplete, emacs

Solution

`ac-config-default` sets a list of sources that does not include ac-source-filename. By calling this function after `setq-default ac-sources` you are resetting them back to the defaults. The auto-complete manual suggests setting mode-hooks to set up the desired sources for specific modes. The example from the manual is

(defun my-ac-emacs-lisp-mode ()
  (setq ac-sources '(ac-source-symbols ac-source-words-in-same-mode-buffers)))

(add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook 'my-ac-emacs-lisp-mode)

Adapting this to python-mode should be easy enough. Alternatively you can globally override the settings set by `ac-config-default` by calling it first, i.e.

(require 'auto-complete-config)
(ac-config-default)
(setq-default ac-sources
          '(
        ac-source-filename
        ac-source-abbrev 
        ac-source-dictionary
        ac-source-words-in-same-mode-buffers))

That way `setq-default ac-sources` will override the sources set by `ac-config-default` rather than the other way around.

Problem

I am running the most recent version of `auto-complete` in `elpa` with the new stable release of Emacs (24.3) in Linux. I have the following setup on my Emacs init file. ``` (add-to-list 'package-archives '("melpa" . "http://melpa.milkbox.net/packages/") t) (require 'auto-complete-config) (setq-default ac-sources '( ac-source-filename ac-source-abbrev ac-source-dictionary ac-source-words-in-same-mode-buffers)) (ac-config-default) ``` If I start typing: `/home/james/.em` in a buffer (e.g. a Python buffer) I would expect auto-complete to suggest: ``` .emacs .emacs.d ``` but it does not show anything. The same thing happens with other files. Sometimes I do see suggestions and/or the pop-up menu shows up, but other times it doesn't. Any thoughts why?

Original source