This works nicely, but if I held down the esc key a little too long, it started behaving oddly. It looked like it was doing some kind of complete-command-and-run function: when I was experimenting with `ls` it completed a directory name (like tab usually would), and then ran the ls command repeatedly, until I let up on the esc key. I tried it with an empty command line and it asked if I wanted to display all 1245 possibilities, which I didn't.

Does anyone have a more precise explanation for what holding down the esc key is doing?

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Actually M-C-[ is bound to complete! And since Meta returns escape it is identical to C-[ C-[ so two times escapes.
Have a look to man readline.

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