+This is a terse description of the new features added to bash-2.05b since
+the release of bash-2.05a. As always, the manual page (doc/bash.1) is
+the place to look for complete descriptions.
+
+1. New Features in Bash
+
+a. If set, TMOUT is the default timeout for the `read' builtin.
+
+b. `type' has two new options: `-f' suppresses shell function lookup, and
+ `-P' forces a $PATH search.
+
+c. New code to handle multibyte characters.
+
+d. `select' was changed to be more ksh-compatible, in that the menu is
+ reprinted each time through the loop only if REPLY is set to NULL.
+ The previous behavior is available as a compile-time option.
+
+e. `complete -d' and `complete -o dirnames' now force a slash to be
+ appended to names which are symlinks to directories.
+
+f. There is now a bindable edit-and-execute-command readline command,
+ like the vi-mode `v' command, bound to C-xC-e in emacs mode.
+
+g. Added support for ksh93-like [:word:] character class in pattern matching.
+
+h. The $'...' quoting construct now expands \cX to Control-X.
+
+i. A new \D{...} prompt expansion; passes the `...' to strftime and inserts
+ the result into the expanded prompt.
+
+j. The shell now performs arithmetic in the largest integer size the
+ machine supports (intmax_t), instead of long.
+
+k. If a numeric argument is supplied to one of the bash globbing completion
+ functions, a `*' is appended to the word before expansion is attempted.
+
+l. The bash globbing completion functions now allow completions to be listed
+ with double tabs or if `show-all-if-ambiguous' is set.
+
+m. New `-o nospace' option for `complete' and `compgen' builtins; suppresses
+ readline's appending a space to the completed word.
+
+n. New `here-string' redirection operator: <<< word.
+
+o. When displaying variables, function attributes and definitions are shown
+ separately, allowing them to be re-used as input (attempting to re-use
+ the old output would result in syntax errors).
+
+p. There is a new configuration option `--enable-mem-scramble', controls
+ bash malloc behavior of writing garbage characters into memory at
+ allocation and free time.
+
+q. The `complete' and `compgen' builtins now have a new `-s/-A service'
+ option to complete on names from /etc/services.
+
+r. `read' has a new `-u fd' option to read from a specified file descriptor.
+
+s. Fix the completion code so that expansion errors in a directory name
+ don't cause a longjmp back to the command loop.
+
+t. Fixed word completion inside command substitution to work a little more
+ intuitively.
+
+u. The `printf' %q format specifier now uses $'...' quoting to print the
+ argument if it contains non-printing characters.
+
+v. The `declare' and `typeset' builtins have a new `-t' option. When applied
+ to functions, it causes the DEBUG trap to be inherited by the named
+ function. Currently has no effect on variables.
+
+w. The DEBUG trap is now run *before* simple commands, ((...)) commands,
+ [[...]] conditional commands, and for ((...)) loops.
+
+x. The expansion of $LINENO inside a shell function is only relative to the
+ function start if the shell is interactive -- if the shell is running a
+ script, $LINENO expands to the line number in the script. This is as
+ POSIX-2001 requires.
+
+y. The bash debugger in examples/bashdb has been modified to work with the
+ new DEBUG trap semantics, the command set has been made more gdb-like,
+ and the changes to $LINENO make debugging functions work better. Code
+ from Gary Vaughan.
+
+z. New [n]<&word- and [n]>&word- redirections from ksh93 -- move fds (dup
+ and close).
+
+aa. There is a new `-l' invocation option, equivalent to `--login'.
+
+bb. The `hash' builtin has a new `-l' option to list contents in a reusable
+ format, and a `-d' option to remove a name from the hash table.
+
+cc. There is now support for placing the long help text into separate files
+ installed into ${datadir}/bash. Not enabled by default; can be turned
+ on with `--enable-separate-helpfiles' option to configure.
+
+dd. All builtins that take operands accept a `--' pseudo-option, except
+ `echo'.
+
+ee. The `echo' builtin now accepts \0xxx (zero to three octal digits following
+ the `0') in addition to \xxx (one to three octal digits) for SUSv3/XPG6/
+ POSIX.1-2001 compliance.
+
+
+2. New Features in Readline
+
+a. Support for key `subsequences': allows, e.g., ESC and ESC-a to both
+ be bound to readline functions. Now the arrow keys may be used in vi
+ insert mode.
+
+b. When listing completions, and the number of lines displayed is more than
+ the screen length, readline uses an internal pager to display the results.
+ This is controlled by the `page-completions' variable (default on).
+
+c. New code to handle editing and displaying multibyte characters.
+
+d. The behavior introduced in bash-2.05a of deciding whether or not to
+ append a slash to a completed name that is a symlink to a directory has
+ been made optional, controlled by the `mark-symlinked-directories'
+ variable (default is the 2.05a behavior).
+
+e. The `insert-comment' command now acts as a toggle if given a numeric
+ argument: if the first characters on the line don't specify a
+ comment, insert one; if they do, delete the comment text
+
+f. New application-settable completion variable:
+ rl_completion_mark_symlink_dirs, allows an application's completion
+ function to temporarily override the user's preference for appending
+ slashes to names which are symlinks to directories.
+
+g. New function available to application completion functions:
+ rl_completion_mode, to tell how the completion function was invoked
+ and decide which argument to supply to rl_complete_internal (to list
+ completions, etc.).
+
+h. Readline now has an overwrite mode, toggled by the `overwrite-mode'
+ bindable command, which could be bound to `Insert'.
+
+i. New application-settable completion variable:
+ rl_completion_suppress_append, inhibits appending of
+ rl_completion_append_character to completed words.
+
+j. New key bindings when reading an incremental search string: ^W yanks
+ the currently-matched word out of the current line into the search
+ string; ^Y yanks the rest of the current line into the search string,
+ DEL or ^H deletes characters from the search string.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a terse description of the new features added to bash-2.05a since
the release of bash-2.05. As always, the manual page (doc/bash.1) is
the place to look for complete descriptions.
projects / platform / upstream / bash.git / blobdiff