readline/CHANGES

   1 This document details the changes between this version, readline-4.0,
   2 and the previous version, readline-2.2.
   3
   4 1.  Changes to Readline
   5
   6 a.  The version number is now 4.0, to match the major and minor version
   7     numbers on the shared readline and history libraries.  Future
   8     releases will maintain the identical numbering.
   9
  10 b.  Fixed a typo in the `make install' recipe that copied libreadline.a
  11     to libhistory.old right after installing it.
  12
  13 c.  The readline and history info files are now installed out of the source
  14     directory if they are not found in the build directory.
  15
  16 d.  The library no longer exports a function named `savestring' -- backwards
  17     compatibility be damned.
  18
  19 e.  There is no longer any #ifdef SHELL code in the source files.
  20
  21 f.  Some changes were made to the key binding code to fix memory leaks and
  22     better support Win32 systems.
  23
  24 g.  Fixed a silly typo in the paren matching code -- it's microseconds, not
  25     milliseconds.
  26
  27 h.  The readline library should be compilable by C++ compilers.
  28
  29 i.  The readline.h public header file now includes function prototypes for
  30     all readline functions, and some changes were made to fix errors in the
  31     source files uncovered by the use of prototypes.
  32
  33 j.  The maximum numeric argument is now clamped at 1000000.
  34
  35 k.  Fixes to rl_yank_last_arg to make it behave better.
  36
  37 l.  Fixed a bug in the display code that caused core dumps if the prompt
  38     string length exceeded 1024 characters.
  39
  40 m.  The menu completion code was fixed to properly insert a single completion
  41     if there is only one match.
  42
  43 n.  A bug was fixed that caused the display code to improperly display tabs
  44     after newlines.
  45
  46 o.  A fix was made to the completion code in which a typo caused the wrong
  47     value to be passed to the function that computed the longest common
  48     prefix of the list of matches.
  49
  50 p.  The completion code now checks the value of rl_filename_completion_desired,
  51     which is set by application-supplied completion functions to indicate
  52     that filename completion is being performed, to decide whether or not to
  53     call an application-supplied `ignore completions' function.
  54
  55 q.  Code was added to the history library to catch history substitutions
  56     using `&' without a previous history substitution or search having been
  57     performed.
  58
  59
  60 2.  New Features in Readline
  61
  62 a.  There is a new script, support/shobj-conf, to do system-specific shared
  63     object and library configuration.  It generates variables for configure
  64     to substitute into makefiles.  The README file provides a detailed
  65     explanation of the shared library creation process.
  66
  67 b.  Shared libraries and objects are now built in the `shlib' subdirectory.
  68     There is a shlib/Makefile.in to control the build process.  `make shared'
  69     from the top-level directory is still the right way to build shared
  70     versions of the libraries.
  71
  72 c.  rlconf.h is now installed, so applications can find out which features
  73     have been compiled into the installed readline and history libraries.
  74
  75 d.  rlstdc.h is now an installed header file.
  76
  77 e.  Many changes to the signal handling:
  78         o Readline now catches SIGQUIT and cleans up the tty before returning;
  79         o A new variable, rl_catch_signals, is available to application writers
  80           to indicate to readline whether or not it should install its own
  81           signal handlers for SIGINT, SIGTERM, SIGQUIT, SIGALRM, SIGTSTP,
  82           SIGTTIN, and SIGTTOU;
  83         o A new variable, rl_catch_sigwinch, is available to application
  84           writers to indicate to readline whether or not it should install its
  85           own signal handler for SIGWINCH, which will chain to the calling
  86           applications's SIGWINCH handler, if one is installed;
  87         o There is a new function, rl_free_line_state, for application signal
  88           handlers to call to free up the state associated with the current
  89           line after receiving a signal;
  90         o There is a new function, rl_cleanup_after_signal, to clean up the
  91           display and terminal state after receiving a signal;
  92         o There is a new function, rl_reset_after_signal, to reinitialize the
  93           terminal and display state after an application signal handler
  94           returns and readline continues
  95
  96 f.  There is a new function, rl_resize_terminal, to reset readline's idea of
  97     the screen size after a SIGWINCH.
  98
  99 g.  New public functions: rl_save_prompt and rl_restore_prompt.  These were
 100     previously private functions with a `_' prefix.  These functions are
 101     used when an application wants to write a message to the `message area'
 102     with rl_message and have the prompt restored correctly when the message
 103     is erased.
 104
 105 h.  New function hook: rl_pre_input_hook, called just before readline starts
 106     reading input, after initialization.
 107
 108 i.  New function hook: rl_display_matches_hook, called when readline would
 109     display the list of completion matches.  The new function
 110     rl_display_match_list is what readline uses internally, and is available
 111     for use by application functions called via this hook.
 112
 113 j.  New bindable function, delete-char-or-list, like tcsh.
 114
 115 k.  A new variable, rl_erase_empty_line, which, if set by an application using
 116     readline, will cause readline to erase, prompt and all, lines on which the
 117     only thing typed was a newline.
 118
 119 l.  There is a new script, support/shlib-install, to install and uninstall
 120     the shared readline and history libraries.
 121
 122 m.  A new bindable variable, `isearch-terminators', which is a string
 123     containing the set of characters that should terminate an incremental
 124     search without being executed as a command.
 125
 126 n.  A new bindable function, forward-backward-delete-char.
 127
 128 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 129 This document details the changes between this version, readline-2.2,
 130 and the previous version, readline-2.1.
 131
 132 1.  Changes to Readline
 133
 134 a.  Added a missing `extern' to a declaration in readline.h that kept
 135     readline from compiling cleanly on some systems.
 136
 137 b.  The history file is now opened with mode 0600 when it is written for
 138     better security.
 139
 140 c.  Changes were made to the SIGWINCH handling code so that prompt redisplay
 141     is done better.
 142
 143 d.  ^G now interrupts incremental searches correctly.
 144
 145 e.  A bug that caused a core dump when the set of characters to be quoted
 146     when completing words was empty was fixed.
 147
 148 f.  Fixed a problem in the readline test program rltest.c that caused a core
 149     dump.
 150
 151 g.  The code that handles parser directives in inputrc files now displays
 152     more error messages.
 153
 154 h.  The history expansion code was fixed so that the appearance of the
 155     history comment character at the beginning of a word inhibits history
 156     expansion for that word and the rest of the input line.
 157
 158 i.  The code that prints completion listings now behaves better if one or
 159     more of the filenames contains non-printable characters.
 160
 161 j.  The time delay when showing matching parentheses is now 0.5 seconds.
 162
 163
 164 2.  New Features in Readline
 165
 166 a.  There is now an option for `iterative' yank-last-arg handline, so a user
 167     can keep entering `M-.', yanking the last argument of successive history
 168     lines.
 169
 170 b.  New variable, `print-completions-horizontally', which causes completion
 171     matches to be displayed across the screen (like `ls -x') rather than up
 172     and down the screen (like `ls').
 173
 174 c.  New variable, `completion-ignore-case', which causes filename completion
 175     and matching to be performed case-insensitively.
 176
 177 d.  There is a new bindable command, `magic-space', which causes history
 178     expansion to be performed on the current readline buffer and a space to
 179     be inserted into the result.
 180
 181 e.  There is a new bindable command, `menu-complete', which enables tcsh-like
 182     menu completion (successive executions of menu-complete insert a single
 183     completion match, cycling through the list of possible completions).
 184
 185 f.  There is a new bindable command, `paste-from-clipboard', for use on Win32
 186     systems, to insert the text from the Win32 clipboard into the editing
 187     buffer.
 188
 189 g.  The key sequence translation code now understands printf-style backslash
 190     escape sequences, including \NNN octal escapes.  These escape sequences
 191     may be used in key sequence definitions or macro values.
 192
 193 h.  An `$include' inputrc file parser directive has been added.