diff --git a/src/completion.cc b/src/completion.cc
index da5e1387..793b67b2 100644
--- a/src/completion.cc
+++ b/src/completion.cc
@@ -3,10 +3,13 @@
 #include "buffer_manager.hh"
 #include "utils.hh"
 #include "file.hh"
+#include "context.hh"
 
 #include <dirent.h>
 #include <algorithm>
 
+#include <boost/regex.hpp>
+
 namespace Kakoune
 {
 
@@ -19,6 +22,11 @@ CandidateList complete_filename(const Context& context,
     String dirprefix;
     String fileprefix = real_prefix;
 
+    String ignored_files = context.options()["ignored_files"].as_string();
+    boost::regex ignored_files_regex;
+    if (not ignored_files.empty())
+         ignored_files_regex = boost::regex(ignored_files.c_str());
+
     ByteCount dir_end = -1;
     for (ByteCount i = 0; i < real_prefix.length(); ++i)
     {
@@ -45,6 +53,10 @@ CandidateList complete_filename(const Context& context,
         if (filename.empty())
             continue;
 
+        if (not ignored_files.empty() and
+            boost::regex_match(filename.c_str(), ignored_files_regex))
+            continue;
+
         if (filename.substr(0, fileprefix.length()) == fileprefix)
         {
             String name = dirprefix + filename;
diff --git a/src/option_manager.cc b/src/option_manager.cc
index 60a60c78..2472f9dd 100644
--- a/src/option_manager.cc
+++ b/src/option_manager.cc
@@ -98,6 +98,7 @@ GlobalOptions::GlobalOptions()
     set_option("eolformat", Option("lf"));
     set_option("BOM", Option("no"));
     set_option("complete_prefix", Option(1));
+    set_option("ignored_files", Option(R"(^(\..*|.*\.(o|so|a))$)"));
 }
 
 }