Where is the 'man' complete function? - bash

Question

When i type something like this:
$ complete -p | grep -ie '\<man\>'
or:
$ find /etc/bash_completion.d/ -iname '*man*'
or:
$ grep -rie '\<man\>' /etc/bash_completion.d/
I don't find any trace of the complete function for the man command!
The goal is to add this completion for one of my own-made function:
complete -F <the_man_complete_function> <my_man_related_command>
Any idea?

Answer 1

I can't give you complete solution, but I found the following on my system
If I run a new shell and type:
> complete -p man
bash: complete: man: no completion specification
If I try to autocomplete a man command with:
> man [tab][tab]
Display all 16625 possibilities? (y or n)
CTRL-C
Now:
> complete -p man
complete -F _man man
Why now? Don't have an answer, but now I can get:
> complete -p | grep _man
complete -F _man man
complete -F _man apropos
complete -F _man whatis
I hope this helps a bit. It is quite a mystery why it works only after using it first. Someone else an idea?

Answer 2

Bash function documentation can also be found using, e.g.,
help complete

Answer 3

I think you are asking where the man page is for the command 'complete' can be found. If so, complete is part of bash (if you are using bash), so just type 'man bash'.

Answer 4

I found a solution : to load the not-yet-loaded completion func, I just have to launch this in .bashrc:
. /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/man
Usefull links that helped me:
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/89409/bash-completion-not-working-for-some-commands
bash-completion - completion function defined the first time a command is invoked
EDIT
To avoid loading the man completion script on every bash session start, a better solution is to write a local completion script, to put in the directory $XDG_DATA_HOME/bash-completion/completions (typically ~/.local/share/bash-completion/completions), with the name of the desired command (as explained in the bash-completion FAQ).
Here's the code I put in the script (named myman):
#!/bin/bash
# Force the load of the man completion function if it is not loaded yet:
type -t _man >/dev/null || . /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/man
complete -F _man myman
With this method, the man completion function will be loaded only when required (by man, or myman).