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This note proposes a new method to complete a triangulated category, which is based on the notion of a Cauchy sequence. We apply this to categories of perfect complexes. It is shown that the bounded derived category of finitely presented modules over a right coherent ring is the completion of the category of perfect complexes. The result extends to non-affine noetherian schemes and gives rise to a direct construction of the singularity category. The parallel theory of completion for abelian categories is compatible with the completion of derived categories. There are three appendices. The first one by Tobias Barthel discusses the completion of perfect complexes for ring spectra. The second one by Tobias Barthel and Henning Krause refines for a separated noetherian scheme the description of the bounded derived category of coherent sheaves as a completion. The final appendix by Bernhard Keller introduces the concept of a morphic enhancement for triangulated categories and provides a foundation for completing a triangulated category.

We provide a criterion for the existence of right approximations in cocomplete additive categories; it is a straightforward generalisation of a result due to El Bashir. This criterion is used to construct adjoint functors in homotopy categories. Applications include the study of (pure) derived categories. For instance, it is shown that the pure derived category of any module category is compactly generated., Comment: 15 pages, added some remarks, another description of the pure derived category of a module category, and an example

For a commutative noetherian ring A, we compare the support of a complex of A-modules with the support of its cohomology. This leads to a classification of all full subcategories of A-modules which are thick (that is, closed under taking kernels, cokernels, and extensions) and closed under taking arbitrary direct sums. In addition, subcategories of A-modules that are closed under taking submodules, extensions, and direct unions are classified via associated prime ideals.