int sizeof_matchlist;
   int matches;
   int textlen = strlen (text);
+  int pass;
+  int saw_deprecated_match = 0;
 
   sizeof_matchlist = 10;
   matchlist = (char **) xmalloc (sizeof_matchlist * sizeof (char *));
   matches = 0;
 
-  for (ptr = list; ptr; ptr = ptr->next)
-    if (!strncmp (ptr->name, text, textlen)
-       && !ptr->abbrev_flag
-       && (ptr->func
-           || ptr->prefixlist))
-      {
-       if (matches == sizeof_matchlist)
+  /* We do one or two passes.  In the first pass, we skip deprecated
+     commands.  If we see no matching commands in the first pass, and
+     if we did happen to see a matching deprecated command, we do
+     another loop to collect those.  */
+  for (pass = 0; matches == 0 && pass < 2; ++pass)
+    {
+      for (ptr = list; ptr; ptr = ptr->next)
+       if (!strncmp (ptr->name, text, textlen)
+           && !ptr->abbrev_flag
+           && (ptr->func
+               || ptr->prefixlist))
          {
-           sizeof_matchlist *= 2;
-           matchlist = (char **) xrealloc ((char *) matchlist,
-                                           (sizeof_matchlist
-                                            * sizeof (char *)));
-         }
+           if (pass == 0)
+             {
+               if ((ptr->flags & CMD_DEPRECATED) != 0)
+                 {
+                   saw_deprecated_match = 1;
+                   continue;
+                 }
+             }
 
-       matchlist[matches] = (char *)
-         xmalloc (strlen (word) + strlen (ptr->name) + 1);
-       if (word == text)
-         strcpy (matchlist[matches], ptr->name);
-       else if (word > text)
-         {
-           /* Return some portion of ptr->name.  */
-           strcpy (matchlist[matches], ptr->name + (word - text));
-         }
-       else
-         {
-           /* Return some of text plus ptr->name.  */
-           strncpy (matchlist[matches], word, text - word);
-           matchlist[matches][text - word] = '\0';
-           strcat (matchlist[matches], ptr->name);
+           if (matches == sizeof_matchlist)
+             {
+               sizeof_matchlist *= 2;
+               matchlist = (char **) xrealloc ((char *) matchlist,
+                                               (sizeof_matchlist
+                                                * sizeof (char *)));
+             }
+
+           matchlist[matches] = (char *)
+             xmalloc (strlen (word) + strlen (ptr->name) + 1);
+           if (word == text)
+             strcpy (matchlist[matches], ptr->name);
+           else if (word > text)
+             {
+               /* Return some portion of ptr->name.  */
+               strcpy (matchlist[matches], ptr->name + (word - text));
+             }
+           else
+             {
+               /* Return some of text plus ptr->name.  */
+               strncpy (matchlist[matches], word, text - word);
+               matchlist[matches][text - word] = '\0';
+               strcat (matchlist[matches], ptr->name);
+             }
+           ++matches;
          }
-       ++matches;
-      }
+      /* If we saw no matching deprecated commands in the first pass,
+        just bail out.  */
+      if (!saw_deprecated_match)
+       break;
+    }
 
   if (matches == 0)
     {