Emacs auto-complete-mode at startup

Question

I just install auto-complete-mode, however everytime I start emacs I have to M-x auto-complete-mode. Is there anyway to have it loaded automatically ?

My .emacs is as follows:

;; auto-complete
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/")
(require 'auto-complete-config)
(add-to-list 'ac-dictionary-directories "~/.emacs.d//ac-dict")
(ac-config-default)

Thanks

Autoplasty

I think there is a solution suggested in the Emacs Wiki. Search for real-global-auto-complete-mode and see if this works for you. – Ryle

Answer 1

I think you can do it in various ways. To enable it globally you should use

(global-auto-complete-mode t)

But it uses auto-complete-mode-maybe, which turn AC on only those listed in ac-modes. You can add them manually just like this

(add-to-list 'ac-modes 'sql-mode)

You can make your own list if you wish AC be active only for few modes

(setq ac-modes '(c++-mode sql-mode))

Or rewrite it to have AC everywhere.

(defun auto-complete-mode-maybe ()
  "No maybe for you. Only AC!"
  (auto-complete-mode 1))

edited:

Autocomplete in minibuffer is bad. I think this will be better.

(defun auto-complete-mode-maybe ()
  "No maybe for you. Only AC!"
  (unless (minibufferp (current-buffer))
    (auto-complete-mode 1)))

Revivalism

It may be helpful to point out that you need a (require 'auto-complete) somewhere before (global-auto-complete-mode t) is executed. – Synchrotron

I found (setq ac-modes '(c++-mode sql-mode)) to be the easiest way (and least ambiguous) to accomplish what I wanted. – Oma

None of these options work for me on emacs 24.3.1 on Ubuntu x86. I see that the status on the modeline (AC) but none of the AC features work, and I know they do because I used to turn it on manually using M-x auto-complete-mode. What worked for me was in emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/18982/… – Savitt

How could I assign a key-binding for auto-complete-mode-maybe ? @Revivalism – Lento

Answer 2

I just needed this:

(require 'auto-complete)
(global-auto-complete-mode t)

added to my .emacs.d/init.el file.

I installed auto-complete with the package manager. I'm using Emacs 24.

Prefect

Please alert even with this setting, AC mode will not be turned on for every mode. For instance, AC mode will not work in ReST mode without rewrite auto-complete-mode-maybe () like the accepted answer. – Abandoned

Should I press TAB ? @Frank Henard – Lento