1 This document details the changes between this version, readline-4.3,
2 and the previous version, readline-4.2a.
6 a. Fixed output of comment-begin character when listing variable values.
8 b. Added some default key bindings for common escape sequences produced by
11 c. Fixed the mark handling code to be more emacs-compatible.
13 d. A bug was fixed in the code that prints possible completions to keep it
14 from printing empty strings in certain circumstances.
16 e. Change the key sequence printing code to print ESC as M\- if ESC is a
17 meta-prefix character -- it's easier for users to understand than \e.
19 f. Fixed unstifle_history() to return values that match the documentation.
21 g. Fixed the event loop (rl_event_hook) to handle the case where the input
22 file descriptor is invalidated.
24 h. Fixed the prompt display code to work better when the application has a
25 custom redisplay function.
27 i. Changes to make reading and writing the history file a little faster, and
28 to cope with huge history files without calling abort(3) from xmalloc.
30 j. The vi-mode `S' and `s' commands are now undone correctly.
32 k. Fixed a problem which caused the display to be messed up when the last
33 line of a multi-line prompt (possibly containing invisible characters)
34 was longer than the screen width.
36 2. New Features in Readline
38 a. Support for key `subsequences': allows, e.g., ESC and ESC-a to both
39 be bound to readline functions. Now the arrow keys may be used in vi
42 b. When listing completions, and the number of lines displayed is more than
43 the screen length, readline uses an internal pager to display the results.
44 This is controlled by the `page-completions' variable (default on).
46 c. New code to handle editing and displaying multibyte characters.
48 d. The behavior introduced in bash-2.05a of deciding whether or not to
49 append a slash to a completed name that is a symlink to a directory has
50 been made optional, controlled by the `mark-symlinked-directories'
51 variable (default is the 2.05a behavior).
53 e. The `insert-comment' command now acts as a toggle if given a numeric
54 argument: if the first characters on the line don't specify a
55 comment, insert one; if they do, delete the comment text
57 f. New application-settable completion variable:
58 rl_completion_mark_symlink_dirs, allows an application's completion
59 function to temporarily override the user's preference for appending
60 slashes to names which are symlinks to directories.
62 g. New function available to application completion functions:
63 rl_completion_mode, to tell how the completion function was invoked
64 and decide which argument to supply to rl_complete_internal (to list
67 h. Readline now has an overwrite mode, toggled by the `overwrite-mode'
68 bindable command, which could be bound to `Insert'.
70 i. New application-settable completion variable:
71 rl_completion_suppress_append, inhibits appending of
72 rl_completion_append_character to completed words.
74 j. New key bindings when reading an incremental search string: ^W yanks
75 the currently-matched word out of the current line into the search
76 string; ^Y yanks the rest of the current line into the search string,
77 DEL or ^H deletes characters from the search string.
79 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
80 This document details the changes between this version, readline-4.2a,
81 and the previous version, readline-4.2.
83 1. Changes to Readline
85 a. More `const' and type casting fixes.
87 b. Changed rl_message() to use vsnprintf(3) (if available) to fix buffer
90 c. The completion code no longer appends a `/' or ` ' to a match when
91 completing a symbolic link that resolves to a directory name, unless
92 the match does not add anything to the word being completed. This
93 means that a tab will complete the word up to the full name, but not
94 add anything, and a subsequent tab will add a slash.
96 d. Fixed a trivial typo that made the vi-mode `dT' command not work.
98 e. Fixed the tty code so that ^S and ^Q can be inserted with rl_quoted_insert.
100 f. Fixed the tty code so that ^V works more than once.
102 g. Changed the use of __P((...)) for function prototypes to PARAMS((...))
103 because the use of __P in typedefs conflicted g++ and glibc.
105 h. The completion code now attempts to do a better job of preserving the
106 case of the word the user typed if ignoring case in completions.
108 i. Readline defaults to not echoing the input and lets the terminal
109 initialization code enable echoing if there is a controlling terminal.
111 j. The key binding code now processes only two hex digits after a `\x'
112 escape sequence, and the documentation was changed to note that the
113 octal and hex escape sequences result in an eight-bit value rather
116 k. Fixed a few places where negative array subscripts could have occurred.
118 l. Fixed the vi-mode code to use a better method to determine the bounds of
119 the array used to hold the marks, and to avoid out-of-bounds references.
121 m. Fixed the defines in chardefs.h to work better when chars are signed.
123 n. Fixed configure.in to use the new names for bash autoconf macros.
125 o. Readline no longer attempts to define its own versions of some ctype
126 macros if they are implemented as functions in libc but not as macros in
129 p. Fixed a problem where rl_backward could possibly set point to before
130 the beginning of the line.
132 q. Fixed Makefile to not put -I/usr/include into CFLAGS, since it can cause
133 include file problems.
135 2. New Features in Readline
137 a. Added extern declaration for rl_get_termcap to readline.h, making it a
138 public function (it was always there, just not in readline.h).
140 b. New #defines in readline.h: RL_READLINE_VERSION, currently 0x0402,
141 RL_VERSION_MAJOR, currently 4, and RL_VERSION_MINOR, currently 2.
143 c. New readline variable: rl_readline_version, mirrors RL_READLINE_VERSION.
145 d. New bindable boolean readline variable: match-hidden-files. Controls
146 completion of files beginning with a `.' (on Unix). Enabled by default.
148 e. The history expansion code now allows any character to terminate a
149 `:first-' modifier, like csh.
151 f. The incremental search code remembers the last search string and uses
152 it if ^R^R is typed without a search string.
154 h. New bindable variable `history-preserve-point'. If set, the history
155 code attempts to place the user at the same location on each history
156 line retrived with previous-history or next-history.
158 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
159 This document details the changes between this version, readline-4.2,
160 and the previous version, readline-4.1.
162 1. Changes to Readline
164 a. When setting the terminal attributes on systems using `struct termio',
165 readline waits for output to drain before changing the attributes.
167 b. A fix was made to the history word tokenization code to avoid attempts to
168 dereference a null pointer.
170 c. Readline now defaults rl_terminal_name to $TERM if the calling application
171 has left it unset, and tries to initialize with the resultant value.
173 d. Instead of calling (*rl_getc_function)() directly to get input in certain
174 places, readline now calls rl_read_key() consistently.
176 e. Fixed a bug in the completion code that allowed a backslash to quote a
177 single quote inside a single-quoted string.
179 f. rl_prompt is no longer assigned directly from the argument to readline(),
180 but uses memory allocated by readline. This allows constant strings to
181 be passed to readline without problems arising when the prompt processing
182 code wants to modify the string.
184 g. Fixed a bug that caused non-interactive history searches to return the
185 wrong line when performing multiple searches backward for the same string.
187 h. Many variables, function arguments, and function return values are now
188 declared `const' where appropriate, to improve behavior when linking with
191 i. The control character detection code now works better on systems where
192 `char' is unsigned by default.
194 j. The vi-mode numeric argument is now capped at 999999, just like emacs mode.
196 k. The Function, CPFunction, CPPFunction, and VFunction typedefs have been
197 replaced with a set of specific prototyped typedefs, though they are
198 still in the readline header files for backwards compatibility.
200 m. Nearly all of the (undocumented) internal global variables in the library
201 now have an _rl_ prefix -- there were a number that did not, like
202 screenheight, screenwidth, alphabetic, etc.
204 n. The ding() convenience function has been renamed to rl_ding(), though the
205 old function is still defined for backwards compatibility.
207 o. The completion convenience functions filename_completion_function,
208 username_completion_function, and completion_matches now have an rl_
209 prefix, though the old names are still defined for backwards compatibility.
211 p. The functions shared by readline and bash (linkage is satisfied from bash
212 when compiling with bash, and internally otherwise) now have an sh_ prefix.
214 q. Changed the shared library creation procedure on Linux and BSD/OS 4.x so
215 that the `soname' contains only the major version number rather than the
216 major and minor numbers.
218 r. Fixed a redisplay bug that occurred when the prompt spanned more than one
219 physical line and contained invisible characters.
221 s. Added a missing `includedir' variable to the Makefile.
223 t. When installing the shared libraries, make sure symbolic links are relative.
225 u. Added configure test so that it can set `${MAKE}' appropriately.
227 v. Fixed a bug in rl_forward that could cause the point to be set to before
228 the beginning of the line in vi mode.
230 w. Fixed a bug in the callback read-char interface to make it work when a
231 readline function pushes some input onto the input stream with
232 rl_execute_next (like the incremental search functions).
234 x. Fixed a file descriptor leak in the history file manipulation code that
235 was tripped when attempting to truncate a non-regular file (like
238 y. Changes to make all of the exported readline functions declared in
239 readline.h have an rl_ prefix (rltty_set_default_bindings is now
240 rl_tty_set_default_bindings, crlf is now rl_crlf, etc.)
242 z. The formatted documentation included in the base readline distribution
243 is no longer removed on a `make distclean'.
245 aa. Some changes were made to avoid gcc warnings with -Wall.
247 bb. rl_get_keymap_by_name now finds keymaps case-insensitively, so
248 `set keymap EMACS' works.
250 cc. The history file writing and truncation functions now return a useful
253 dd. Fixed a bug that could cause applications to dereference a NULL pointer
254 if a NULL second argument was passed to history_expand().
256 ee. If a hook function assigned to rl_event_hook sets rl_done to a non-zero
257 value, rl_read_key() now immediately returns '\n' (which is assumed to
258 be bound to accept-line).
260 2. New Features in Readline
262 a. The blink timeout for paren matching is now settable by applications,
263 via the rl_set_paren_blink_timeout() function.
265 b. _rl_executing_macro has been renamed to rl_executing_macro, which means
266 it's now part of the public interface.
268 c. Readline has a new variable, rl_readline_state, which is a bitmap that
269 encapsulates the current state of the library; intended for use by
270 callbacks and hook functions.
272 d. rlfe has a new -l option to log input and output (-a appends to logfile),
273 a new -n option to set the readline application name, and -v and -h
274 options for version and help information.
276 e. rlfe can now perform filename completion for the inferior process if the
277 OS has a /proc/<PID>/cwd that can be read with readlink(2) to get the
278 inferior's current working directory.
280 f. A new file, rltypedefs.h, contains the new typedefs for function pointers
281 and is installed by `make install'.
283 g. New application-callable function rl_set_prompt(const char *prompt):
284 expands its prompt string argument and sets rl_prompt to the result.
286 h. New application-callable function rl_set_screen_size(int rows, int cols):
287 public method for applications to set readline's idea of the screen
290 i. The history example program (examples/histexamp.c) is now built as one
293 j. The documentation has been updated to cover nearly all of the public
294 functions and variables declared in readline.h.
296 k. New function, rl_get_screen_size (int *rows, int *columns), returns
297 readline's idea of the screen dimensions.
299 l. The timeout in rl_gather_tyi (readline keyboard input polling function)
300 is now settable via a function (rl_set_keyboard_input_timeout()).
302 m. Renamed the max_input_history variable to history_max_entries; the old
303 variable is maintained for backwards compatibility.
305 n. The list of characters that separate words for the history tokenizer is
306 now settable with a variable: history_word_delimiters. The default
309 o. There is a new history.3 manual page documenting the history library.
311 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
312 This document details the changes between this version, readline-4.1,
313 and the previous version, readline-4.0.
315 1. Changes to Readline
317 a. Changed the HTML documents so that the table-of-contents is no longer
320 b. Changes to the shared object configuration for: Irix 5.x, Irix 6.x,
323 c. The shared library major and minor versions are now constructed
324 automatically by configure and substituted into the makefiles.
326 d. It's now possible to install the shared libraries separately from the
329 e. The history library tries to truncate the history file only if it is a
332 f. A bug that caused _rl_dispatch to address negative array indices on
333 systems with signed chars was fixed.
335 g. rl-yank-nth-arg now leaves the history position the same as when it was
338 h. Changes to the completion code to handle MS-DOS drive-letter:pathname
341 i. Completion is now case-insensitive by default on MS-DOS.
343 j. Fixes to the history file manipulation code for MS-DOS.
345 k. Readline attempts to bind the arrow keys to appropriate defaults on MS-DOS.
347 l. Some fixes were made to the redisplay code for better operation on MS-DOS.
349 m. The quoted-insert code will now insert tty special chars like ^C.
351 n. A bug was fixed that caused the display code to reference memory before
352 the start of the prompt string.
354 o. More support for __EMX__ (OS/2).
356 p. A bug was fixed in readline's signal handling that could cause infinite
357 recursion in signal handlers.
359 q. A bug was fixed that caused the point to be less than zero when rl_forward
360 was given a very large numeric argument.
362 r. The vi-mode code now gets characters via the application-settable value
363 of rl_getc_function rather than calling rl_getc directly.
365 s. The history file code now uses O_BINARY mode when reading and writing
366 the history file on cygwin32.
368 t. Fixed a bug in the redisplay code for lines with more than 256 line
371 u. A bug was fixed which caused invisible character markers to not be
372 stripped from the prompt string if the terminal was in no-echo mode.
374 v. Readline no longer tries to get the variables it needs for redisplay
375 from the termcap entry if the calling application has specified its
376 own redisplay function. Readline treats the terminal as `dumb' in
379 w. Fixes to the SIGWINCH code so that a multiple-line prompt with escape
380 sequences is redrawn correctly.
382 x. Changes to the install and install-shared targets so that the libraries
383 and header files are installed separately.
385 2. New Features in Readline
387 a. A new Readline `user manual' is in doc/rluserman.texinfo.
389 b. Parentheses matching is now always compiled into readline, and enabled
390 or disabled when the value of the `blink-matching-paren' variable is
393 c. MS-DOS systems now use ~/_inputrc as the last-ditch inputrc filename.
395 d. MS-DOS systems now use ~/_history as the default history file.
397 e. history-search-{forward,backward} now leave the point at the end of the
398 line when the string to search for is empty, like
399 {reverse,forward}-search-history.
401 f. history-search-{forward,backward} now leave the last history line found
402 in the readline buffer if the second or subsequent search fails.
404 g. New function for use by applications: rl_on_new_line_with_prompt, used
405 when an application displays the prompt itself before calling readline().
407 h. New variable for use by applications: rl_already_prompted. An application
408 that displays the prompt itself before calling readline() must set this to
411 i. A new variable, rl_gnu_readline_p, always 1. The intent is that an
412 application can verify whether or not it is linked with the `real'
413 readline library or some substitute.
415 j. Per Bothner's `rlfe' (pronounced `Ralphie') readline front-end program
416 is included in the examples subdirectory, though it is not built
419 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
420 This document details the changes between this version, readline-4.0,
421 and the previous version, readline-2.2.
423 1. Changes to Readline
425 a. The version number is now 4.0, to match the major and minor version
426 numbers on the shared readline and history libraries. Future
427 releases will maintain the identical numbering.
429 b. Fixed a typo in the `make install' recipe that copied libreadline.a
430 to libhistory.old right after installing it.
432 c. The readline and history info files are now installed out of the source
433 directory if they are not found in the build directory.
435 d. The library no longer exports a function named `savestring' -- backwards
436 compatibility be damned.
438 e. There is no longer any #ifdef SHELL code in the source files.
440 f. Some changes were made to the key binding code to fix memory leaks and
441 better support Win32 systems.
443 g. Fixed a silly typo in the paren matching code -- it's microseconds, not
446 h. The readline library should be compilable by C++ compilers.
448 i. The readline.h public header file now includes function prototypes for
449 all readline functions, and some changes were made to fix errors in the
450 source files uncovered by the use of prototypes.
452 j. The maximum numeric argument is now clamped at 1000000.
454 k. Fixes to rl_yank_last_arg to make it behave better.
456 l. Fixed a bug in the display code that caused core dumps if the prompt
457 string length exceeded 1024 characters.
459 m. The menu completion code was fixed to properly insert a single completion
460 if there is only one match.
462 n. A bug was fixed that caused the display code to improperly display tabs
465 o. A fix was made to the completion code in which a typo caused the wrong
466 value to be passed to the function that computed the longest common
467 prefix of the list of matches.
469 p. The completion code now checks the value of rl_filename_completion_desired,
470 which is set by application-supplied completion functions to indicate
471 that filename completion is being performed, to decide whether or not to
472 call an application-supplied `ignore completions' function.
474 q. Code was added to the history library to catch history substitutions
475 using `&' without a previous history substitution or search having been
479 2. New Features in Readline
481 a. There is a new script, support/shobj-conf, to do system-specific shared
482 object and library configuration. It generates variables for configure
483 to substitute into makefiles. The README file provides a detailed
484 explanation of the shared library creation process.
486 b. Shared libraries and objects are now built in the `shlib' subdirectory.
487 There is a shlib/Makefile.in to control the build process. `make shared'
488 from the top-level directory is still the right way to build shared
489 versions of the libraries.
491 c. rlconf.h is now installed, so applications can find out which features
492 have been compiled into the installed readline and history libraries.
494 d. rlstdc.h is now an installed header file.
496 e. Many changes to the signal handling:
497 o Readline now catches SIGQUIT and cleans up the tty before returning;
498 o A new variable, rl_catch_signals, is available to application writers
499 to indicate to readline whether or not it should install its own
500 signal handlers for SIGINT, SIGTERM, SIGQUIT, SIGALRM, SIGTSTP,
501 SIGTTIN, and SIGTTOU;
502 o A new variable, rl_catch_sigwinch, is available to application
503 writers to indicate to readline whether or not it should install its
504 own signal handler for SIGWINCH, which will chain to the calling
505 applications's SIGWINCH handler, if one is installed;
506 o There is a new function, rl_free_line_state, for application signal
507 handlers to call to free up the state associated with the current
508 line after receiving a signal;
509 o There is a new function, rl_cleanup_after_signal, to clean up the
510 display and terminal state after receiving a signal;
511 o There is a new function, rl_reset_after_signal, to reinitialize the
512 terminal and display state after an application signal handler
513 returns and readline continues
515 f. There is a new function, rl_resize_terminal, to reset readline's idea of
516 the screen size after a SIGWINCH.
518 g. New public functions: rl_save_prompt and rl_restore_prompt. These were
519 previously private functions with a `_' prefix. These functions are
520 used when an application wants to write a message to the `message area'
521 with rl_message and have the prompt restored correctly when the message
524 h. New function hook: rl_pre_input_hook, called just before readline starts
525 reading input, after initialization.
527 i. New function hook: rl_display_matches_hook, called when readline would
528 display the list of completion matches. The new function
529 rl_display_match_list is what readline uses internally, and is available
530 for use by application functions called via this hook.
532 j. New bindable function, delete-char-or-list, like tcsh.
534 k. A new variable, rl_erase_empty_line, which, if set by an application using
535 readline, will cause readline to erase, prompt and all, lines on which the
536 only thing typed was a newline.
538 l. There is a new script, support/shlib-install, to install and uninstall
539 the shared readline and history libraries.
541 m. A new bindable variable, `isearch-terminators', which is a string
542 containing the set of characters that should terminate an incremental
543 search without being executed as a command.
545 n. A new bindable function, forward-backward-delete-char.
547 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
548 This document details the changes between this version, readline-2.2,
549 and the previous version, readline-2.1.
551 1. Changes to Readline
553 a. Added a missing `extern' to a declaration in readline.h that kept
554 readline from compiling cleanly on some systems.
556 b. The history file is now opened with mode 0600 when it is written for
559 c. Changes were made to the SIGWINCH handling code so that prompt redisplay
562 d. ^G now interrupts incremental searches correctly.
564 e. A bug that caused a core dump when the set of characters to be quoted
565 when completing words was empty was fixed.
567 f. Fixed a problem in the readline test program rltest.c that caused a core
570 g. The code that handles parser directives in inputrc files now displays
573 h. The history expansion code was fixed so that the appearance of the
574 history comment character at the beginning of a word inhibits history
575 expansion for that word and the rest of the input line.
577 i. The code that prints completion listings now behaves better if one or
578 more of the filenames contains non-printable characters.
580 j. The time delay when showing matching parentheses is now 0.5 seconds.
583 2. New Features in Readline
585 a. There is now an option for `iterative' yank-last-arg handline, so a user
586 can keep entering `M-.', yanking the last argument of successive history
589 b. New variable, `print-completions-horizontally', which causes completion
590 matches to be displayed across the screen (like `ls -x') rather than up
591 and down the screen (like `ls').
593 c. New variable, `completion-ignore-case', which causes filename completion
594 and matching to be performed case-insensitively.
596 d. There is a new bindable command, `magic-space', which causes history
597 expansion to be performed on the current readline buffer and a space to
598 be inserted into the result.
600 e. There is a new bindable command, `menu-complete', which enables tcsh-like
601 menu completion (successive executions of menu-complete insert a single
602 completion match, cycling through the list of possible completions).
604 f. There is a new bindable command, `paste-from-clipboard', for use on Win32
605 systems, to insert the text from the Win32 clipboard into the editing
608 g. The key sequence translation code now understands printf-style backslash
609 escape sequences, including \NNN octal escapes. These escape sequences
610 may be used in key sequence definitions or macro values.
612 h. An `$include' inputrc file parser directive has been added.