+This is a terse description of the new features added to bash-2.05 since
+the release of bash-2.04. As always, the manual page (doc/bash.1) is
+the place to look for complete descriptions.
+
+1. New Features in Bash
+
+a. Added a new `--init-file' invocation argument as a synonym for `--rcfile',
+ per the new GNU coding standards.
+
+b. The /dev/tcp and /dev/udp redirections now accept service names as well as
+ port numbers.
+
+c. `complete' and `compgen' now take a `-o value' option, which controls some
+ of the aspects of that compspec. Valid values are:
+
+ default - perform bash default completion if programmable
+ completion produces no matches
+ dirnames - perform directory name completion if programmable
+ completion produces no matches
+ filenames - tell readline that the compspec produces filenames,
+ so it can do things like append slashes to
+ directory names and suppress trailing spaces
+
+d. A new loadable builtin, realpath, which canonicalizes and expands symlinks
+ in pathname arguments.
+
+e. When `set' is called without options, it prints function defintions in a
+ way that allows them to be reused as input. This affects `declare' and
+ `declare -p' as well. This only happens when the shell is not in POSIX
+ mode, since POSIX.2 forbids this behavior.
+
+f. Bash-2.05 once again honors the current locale setting when processing
+ ranges within pattern matching bracket expressions (e.g., [A-Z]).
+
+2. New Features in Readline
+
+a. The blink timeout for paren matching is now settable by applications,
+ via the rl_set_paren_blink_timeout() function.
+
+b. _rl_executing_macro has been renamed to rl_executing_macro, which means
+ it's now part of the public interface.
+
+c. Readline has a new variable, rl_readline_state, which is a bitmap that
+ encapsulates the current state of the library; intended for use by
+ callbacks and hook functions.
+
+d. New application-callable function rl_set_prompt(const char *prompt):
+ expands its prompt string argument and sets rl_prompt to the result.
+
+e. New application-callable function rl_set_screen_size(int rows, int cols):
+ public method for applications to set readline's idea of the screen
+ dimensions.
+
+f. New function, rl_get_screen_size (int *rows, int *columns), returns
+ readline's idea of the screen dimensions.
+
+g. The timeout in rl_gather_tyi (readline keyboard input polling function)
+ is now settable via a function (rl_set_keyboard_input_timeout()).
+
+h. Renamed the max_input_history variable to history_max_entries; the old
+ variable is maintained for backwards compatibility.
+
+i. The list of characters that separate words for the history tokenizer is
+ now settable with a variable: history_word_delimiters. The default
+ value is as before.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+This is a terse description of the new features added to bash-2.04 since
+the release of bash-2.03. As always, the manual page (doc/bash.1) is
+the place to look for complete descriptions.
+
+1. New Features in Bash
+
+a. The history builtin has a `-d offset' option to delete the history entry
+ at position `offset'.
+
+b. The prompt expansion code has two new escape sequences: \j, the number of
+ active jobs; and \l, the basename of the shell's tty device name.
+
+c. The `bind' builtin has a new `-x' option to bind key sequences to shell
+ commands.
+
+d. There is a new shell option, no_empty_command_completion, which, when
+ enabled, disables command completion when TAB is typed on an empty line.
+
+e. The `help' builtin has a `-s' option to just print a builtin's usage
+ synopsis.
+
+f. There are several new arithmetic operators: id++, id-- (variable
+ post-increment/decrement), ++id, --id (variabl pre-increment/decrement),
+ expr1 , expr2 (comma operator).
+
+g. There is a new ksh-93 style arithmetic for command:
+ for ((expr1 ; expr2; expr3 )); do list; done
+
+h. The `read' builtin has a number of new options:
+ -t timeout only wait timeout seconds for input
+ -n nchars only read nchars from input instead of a full line
+ -d delim read until delim rather than newline
+ -s don't echo input chars as they are read
+
+i. The redirection code now handles several filenames specially:
+ /dev/fd/N, /dev/stdin, /dev/stdout, and /dev/stderr, whether or
+ not they are present in the file system.
+
+j. The redirection code now recognizes pathnames of the form
+ /dev/tcp/host/port and /dev/udp/host/port, and tries to open a socket
+ of the appropriate type to the specified port on the specified host.
+
+k. The ksh-93 ${!prefix*} expansion, which expands to the names of all
+ shell variables with prefix PREFIX, has been implemented.
+
+l. There is a new dynamic variable, FUNCNAME, which expands to the name of
+ a currently-executing function. Assignments to FUNCNAME have no effect.
+
+m. The GROUPS variable is no longer readonly; assignments to it are silently
+ discarded. This means it can be unset.
+
+n. A new programmable completion facility, with two new builtin commands:
+ complete and compgen.
+
+o. configure has a new option, `--enable-progcomp', to compile in the
+ programmable completion features (enabled by default).
+
+p. `shopt' has a new option, `progcomp', to enable and disable programmable
+ completion at runtime.
+
+q. Unsetting HOSTFILE now clears the list of hostnames used for completion.
+
+r. configure has a new option, `--enable-bash-malloc', replacing the old
+ `--with-gnu-malloc' (which is still present for backwards compatibility).
+
+s. There is a new manual page describing rbash, the restricted shell.
+
+t. `bashbug' has new `--help' and `--version' options.
+
+u. `shopt' has a new `xpg_echo' option, which controls the behavior of
+ `echo' with respect to backslash-escaped characters at runtime.
+
+v. If NON_INTERACTIVE_LOGIN_SHELLS is defined, all login shells read the
+ startup files, even if they are not interactive.
+
+w. The LC_NUMERIC variable is now treated specially, and used to set the
+ LC_NUMERIC locale category for number formatting, e.g., when `printf'
+ displays floating-point numbers.
+
+2. New features in Readline
+
+a. Parentheses matching is now always compiled into readline, and enabled
+ or disabled when the value of the `blink-matching-paren' variable is
+ changed.
+
+b. MS-DOS systems now use ~/_inputrc as the last-ditch inputrc filename.
+
+c. MS-DOS systems now use ~/_history as the default history file.
+
+d. history-search-{forward,backward} now leave the point at the end of the
+ line when the string to search for is empty, like
+ {reverse,forward}-search-history.
+
+e. history-search-{forward,backward} now leave the last history line found
+ in the readline buffer if the second or subsequent search fails.
+
+f. New function for use by applications: rl_on_new_line_with_prompt, used
+ when an application displays the prompt itself before calling readline().
+
+g. New variable for use by applications: rl_already_prompted. An application
+ that displays the prompt itself before calling readline() must set this to
+ a non-zero value.
+
+h. A new variable, rl_gnu_readline_p, always 1. The intent is that an
+ application can verify whether or not it is linked with the `real'
+ readline library or some substitute.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a terse description of the new features added to bash-2.03 since
the release of bash-2.02. As always, the manual page (doc/bash.1) is
the place to look for complete descriptions.
projects / platform / upstream / bash.git / blobdiff