bash completion random characters - bash

Question

I am having trouble with bash_completion. When I expand variables, I am fine, but when I use a commands completion (such as git or vim-addon-manager), then the completion throws random characters in there. This didn't use to happen to me, I can't figure out what it is.
This is an example of what happens when I type gitTabTaby
[11:11] me#my_computer:~ $ git
Display all 131 possibilities? (y or n)
^[[01;31m^[[K c^[[m^[[Kheckout delete-tag f^[[m^[[Kmt-merge-msg i^[[m^[[Knit-db notes rm
a^[[m^[[Kdd c^[[m^[[Kheckout-index d^[[m^[[Kaemon f^[[m^[[Kor-each-ref i^[[m^[[Knstaweb obliterate setup
a^[[m^[[Klias c^[[m^[[Kheck-ref-format d^[[m^[[Kelete-branch f^[[m^[[Kormat-patch info p4 shortlog
a^[[m^[[Km c^[[m^[[Kherry d^[[m^[[Kelete-merged-branches f^[[m^[[Ksck line-summary pull show
a^[[m^[[Knnotate c^[[m^[[Kherry-pick d^[[m^[[Kelete-submodule f^[[m^[[Ksck-objects l^[[m^[[Kog pull-request show-branch
a^[[m^[[Kpply c^[[m^[[Klean d^[[m^[[Kescribe fresh-branch l^[[m^[[Ks-files push show-tree
a^[[m^[[Krchive c^[[m^[[Klone d^[[m^[[Kiff g^[[m^[[Kc l^[[m^[[Ks-remote rebase squash
a^[[m^[[Krchive-file c^[[m^[[Kolumn d^[[m^[[Kiff-files g^[[m^[[Ket-tar-commit-id l^[[m^[[Ks-tree refactor stage
b^[[m^[[Kack c^[[m^[[Kommit d^[[m^[[Kiff-index g^[[m^[[Krep local-commits reflog stash
b^[[m^[[Kisect c^[[m^[[Kommits-since d^[[m^[[Kifftool graft mergetool release status
b^[[m^[[Klame c^[[m^[[Kommit-tree d^[[m^[[Kiff-tree h^[[m^[[Kash-object m^[[m^[[Kailinfo relink submodule
b^[[m^[[Kranch c^[[m^[[Konfig effort h^[[m^[[Kelp m^[[m^[[Kailsplit remote subtree
b^[[m^[[Kug c^[[m^[[Kontrib extras h^[[m^[[Kttp-backend m^[[m^[[Kerge rename-tag summary
b^[[m^[[Kundle c^[[m^[[Kount feature h^[[m^[[Kttp-fetch m^[[m^[[Kerge-base repack tag
c^[[m^[[Kat-file c^[[m^[[Kount-objects f^[[m^[[Kast-export h^[[m^[[Kttp-push m^[[m^[[Kerge-file repl touch
c^[[m^[[Khangelog c^[[m^[[Kreate-branch f^[[m^[[Kast-import ignore m^[[m^[[Kerge-index replace undo
c^[[m^[[Kheck-attr c^[[m^[[Kredential f^[[m^[[Ketch i^[[m^[[Kmap-send m^[[m^[[Kerge-octopus request-pull whatchanged
c^[[m^[[Kheck-ignore c^[[m^[[Kredential-cache f^[[m^[[Ketch-pack i^[[m^[[Kndex-pack mv reset
c^[[m^[[Kheck-mailmap c^[[m^[[Kredential-store f^[[m^[[Kilter-branch i^[[m^[[Knit name-rev revert
Another example is vam tetris (vam tetTabTab):
^[[01;31m^[[Kaddon: tet^[[m^[[Kris
For vam install tetTabTab, it actually renders it an invalid argument (it's also quite difficult to read), so how can I fix this?

Answer 1

I was experiencing the same problem and saw your answer and changed:
export GREP_OPTIONS='--color=always' to export GREP_OPTIONS='--color=auto'This seems to have fixed the problem with bash-completion on my Mac.

Answer 2

Apparently, bash completions don't like when grep is colored. Anything like
alias grep='grep --color=always'
alias fgrep='fgrep --color=always'
alias egrep='egrep --color=always'
will give you problems.
Therefore, as Garrett Bellomy details below, it may be wise to use --color=auto, which can be achieved by setting GREP_OPTIONS (or by aliasing grep in your rc file). If you want to make this a global variable, add this to ~/.bash_profile (for bash) or ~/.zprofile (zsh) depending on your default shell: export GREP_OPTIONS='--color=auto'