Completion Example
A concrete example may help here. If you type M-x au <TAB>,
the <TAB> looks for alternatives (in this case, command names) that
start with au. There are several, including
auto-fill-mode and auto-save-mode--but they are all the
same as far as auto-, so the au in the minibuffer changes
to auto-.
If you type <TAB> again immediately, there are multiple
possibilities for the very next character--it could be any of
cfilrs--so no more characters are added; instead, <TAB>
displays a list of all possible completions in another window.
If you go on to type f <TAB>, this <TAB> sees
auto-f. The only command name starting this way is
auto-fill-mode, so completion fills in the rest of that. You now
have auto-fill-mode in the minibuffer after typing just au
<TAB> f <TAB>. Note that <TAB> has this effect because in
the minibuffer it is bound to the command minibuffer-complete
when completion is available.
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