Create a .pythonrc file in HOME directory import rlcompleter import readline readline.parse_and_bind("tab: complete") Add .pythonrc to .bashrc export PYTHONSTARTUP="$HOME/.pythonrc" Load the environment variable from .bashrc: $source ~/.bashrc Activate env workon proj-env Source: [[http://paulpodolny.blogspot.com/2013/06/python-autocompletion-and-virtualenv.html|Python autocompletion and virtualenv]]