Undesired command line completion history

Question

Starting vim (8.0) with an empty .vimrc, or as vim -u /dev/null. Executing:

:set nocompatible
:set wildmode=list

On the screen:

:e .config/█

I always thought that what happens when you press Tab is the result of my statusline or laststatus, but changing those do not affect the result:

:e .config/
alot/
aurgetrc
aurvote
awesome/
compton.conf
:e .config/█

Notice the duplicated :e .config/ at the top.

The command line is still in the bottom, and what happens next when I type a and press Tab falls beyond by comprehension:

:e .config/
alot/
aurgetrc
aurvote
awesome/
compton.conf
:e .config/a
alot/     aurgetrc  aurvote   awesome/
:e .config/a█

It keeps the whole command line completion history for each Tab press. Further:

:e .config/
alot/
aurgetrc
aurvote
awesome/
compton.conf
:e .config/a
alot/     aurgetrc  aurvote   awesome/
:e .config/au
aurgetrc  aurvote
:e .config/au█

Needless to say that if I remove au hitting Backspace, and then press Tab again, even more lines are added.

I expect to see command line and wild menu displaying very recent list of completion options when Tab is pressed. How can this be done?

aurgetrc  aurvote
:e .config/au█

Answer 1

Not an entire solution, but I haven't figured out the last part yet.

AFAIK there's no way to clear the screen except by finishing the command or cancelling it. So let's try with a mapping instead:

:cnoremap <S-Tab> <C-c>:<Up>

This will cancel the current command, clearing the screen, and loading it again in the command line.

Note: I tried to also restart the completion with <Tab> but the tab char was inserted instead...

Answer 2

In case of someone want to find a solution to avoid the completion history. It just take much time to find this.

Use:

set wildmode=longest,full

Instead of:

set wildmode=longest:list,full