Autocomplete files/paths while typing in any mode or fundamental mode, like bash does at prompt

Question

After opening up an empty file named

~/work/aback

using emacsclient -nw ... .

I type in

~/huTAB

in the body of the file. how can I get autocompletion candidates shown? In this case, any files/folders starting with the name hu

Answer 1

M-x hippie-expand

Try to expand text before point, using multiple methods. The expansion functions in hippie-expand-try-functions-list are tried in order, until a possible expansion is found. Repeated application of hippie-expand inserts successively possible expansions.

Also see Emacs manual

Answer 2

Interesting... I use find-file-at-point (ffap.el) which is offering me completion. In scratch buffer (having ran emacs -q):

(require 'ffap)
(ffap-bindings)
~/.prof

With the cursor after .prof C-x C-f then asks if I want to load .profile, pressing tab I can then choose other files. Using Copy C-x h M-w I can then paste that into the file. Possibly not the solution you're looking for.