readline/CHANGES

   1 This document details the changes between this version, readline-4.1,
   2 and the previous version, readline-4.0.
   3
   4 1.  Changes to Readline
   5
   6 a.  Changed the HTML documents so that the table-of-contents is no longer
   7     a separate file.
   8
   9 b.  Changes to the shared object configuration for: Irix 5.x, Irix 6.x,
  10     OSF/1.
  11
  12 c.  The shared library major and minor versions are now constructed
  13     automatically by configure and substituted into the makefiles.
  14
  15 d.  It's now possible to install the shared libraries separately from the
  16     static libraries.
  17
  18 e.  The history library tries to truncate the history file only if it is a
  19     regular file.
  20
  21 f.  A bug that caused _rl_dispatch to address negative array indices on
  22     systems with signed chars was fixed.
  23
  24 g.  rl-yank-nth-arg now leaves the history position the same as when it was
  25     called.
  26
  27 h.  Changes to the completion code to handle MS-DOS drive-letter:pathname
  28     filenames.
  29
  30 i.  Completion is now case-insensitive by default on MS-DOS.
  31
  32 j.  Fixes to the history file manipulation code for MS-DOS.
  33
  34 k.  Readline attempts to bind the arrow keys to appropriate defaults on MS-DOS.
  35
  36 l.  Some fixes were made to the redisplay code for better operation on MS-DOS.
  37
  38 m.  The quoted-insert code will now insert tty special chars like ^C.
  39
  40 n.  A bug was fixed that caused the display code to reference memory before
  41     the start of the prompt string.
  42
  43 o.  More support for __EMX__ (OS/2).
  44
  45 p.  A bug was fixed in readline's signal handling that could cause infinite
  46     recursion in signal handlers.
  47
  48 q.  A bug was fixed that caused the point to be less than zero when rl_forward
  49     was given a very large numeric argument.
  50
  51 r.  The vi-mode code now gets characters via the application-settable value
  52     of rl_getc_function rather than calling rl_getc directly.
  53
  54 s.  The history file code now uses O_BINARY mode when reading and writing
  55     the history file on cygwin32.
  56
  57 t.  Fixed a bug in the redisplay code for lines with more than 256 line
  58     breaks.
  59
  60 u.  A bug was fixed which caused invisible character markers to not be
  61     stripped from the prompt string if the terminal was in no-echo mode.
  62
  63 v.  Readline no longer tries to get the variables it needs for redisplay
  64     from the termcap entry if the calling application has specified its
  65     own redisplay function.  Readline treats the terminal as `dumb' in
  66     this case.
  67
  68 w.  Fixes to the SIGWINCH code so that a multiple-line prompt with escape
  69     sequences is redrawn correctly.
  70
  71 x.  Changes to the install and install-shared targets so that the libraries
  72     and header files are installed separately.
  73
  74 2.  New Features in Readline
  75
  76 a.  A new Readline `user manual' is in doc/rluserman.texinfo.
  77
  78 b.  Parentheses matching is now always compiled into readline, and enabled
  79     or disabled when the value of the `blink-matching-paren' variable is
  80     changed.
  81
  82 c.  MS-DOS systems now use ~/_inputrc as the last-ditch inputrc filename.
  83
  84 d.  MS-DOS systems now use ~/_history as the default history file.
  85
  86 e.  history-search-{forward,backward} now leave the point at the end of the
  87     line when the string to search for is empty, like
  88     {reverse,forward}-search-history.
  89
  90 f.  history-search-{forward,backward} now leave the last history line found
  91     in the readline buffer if the second or subsequent search fails.
  92
  93 g.  New function for use by applications:  rl_on_new_line_with_prompt, used
  94     when an application displays the prompt itself before calling readline().
  95
  96 h.  New variable for use by applications:  rl_already_prompted.  An application
  97     that displays the prompt itself before calling readline() must set this to
  98     a non-zero value.
  99
 100 i.  A new variable, rl_gnu_readline_p, always 1.  The intent is that an
 101     application can verify whether or not it is linked with the `real'
 102     readline library or some substitute.
 103
 104 j.  Per Bothner's `rlfe' (pronounced `Ralphie') readline front-end program
 105     is included in the examples subdirectory, though it is not built
 106     by default.
 107
 108 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 109 This document details the changes between this version, readline-4.0,
 110 and the previous version, readline-2.2.
 111
 112 1.  Changes to Readline
 113
 114 a.  The version number is now 4.0, to match the major and minor version
 115     numbers on the shared readline and history libraries.  Future
 116     releases will maintain the identical numbering.
 117
 118 b.  Fixed a typo in the `make install' recipe that copied libreadline.a
 119     to libhistory.old right after installing it.
 120
 121 c.  The readline and history info files are now installed out of the source
 122     directory if they are not found in the build directory.
 123
 124 d.  The library no longer exports a function named `savestring' -- backwards
 125     compatibility be damned.
 126
 127 e.  There is no longer any #ifdef SHELL code in the source files.
 128
 129 f.  Some changes were made to the key binding code to fix memory leaks and
 130     better support Win32 systems.
 131
 132 g.  Fixed a silly typo in the paren matching code -- it's microseconds, not
 133     milliseconds.
 134
 135 h.  The readline library should be compilable by C++ compilers.
 136
 137 i.  The readline.h public header file now includes function prototypes for
 138     all readline functions, and some changes were made to fix errors in the
 139     source files uncovered by the use of prototypes.
 140
 141 j.  The maximum numeric argument is now clamped at 1000000.
 142
 143 k.  Fixes to rl_yank_last_arg to make it behave better.
 144
 145 l.  Fixed a bug in the display code that caused core dumps if the prompt
 146     string length exceeded 1024 characters.
 147
 148 m.  The menu completion code was fixed to properly insert a single completion
 149     if there is only one match.
 150
 151 n.  A bug was fixed that caused the display code to improperly display tabs
 152     after newlines.
 153
 154 o.  A fix was made to the completion code in which a typo caused the wrong
 155     value to be passed to the function that computed the longest common
 156     prefix of the list of matches.
 157
 158 p.  The completion code now checks the value of rl_filename_completion_desired,
 159     which is set by application-supplied completion functions to indicate
 160     that filename completion is being performed, to decide whether or not to
 161     call an application-supplied `ignore completions' function.
 162
 163 q.  Code was added to the history library to catch history substitutions
 164     using `&' without a previous history substitution or search having been
 165     performed.
 166
 167
 168 2.  New Features in Readline
 169
 170 a.  There is a new script, support/shobj-conf, to do system-specific shared
 171     object and library configuration.  It generates variables for configure
 172     to substitute into makefiles.  The README file provides a detailed
 173     explanation of the shared library creation process.
 174
 175 b.  Shared libraries and objects are now built in the `shlib' subdirectory.
 176     There is a shlib/Makefile.in to control the build process.  `make shared'
 177     from the top-level directory is still the right way to build shared
 178     versions of the libraries.
 179
 180 c.  rlconf.h is now installed, so applications can find out which features
 181     have been compiled into the installed readline and history libraries.
 182
 183 d.  rlstdc.h is now an installed header file.
 184
 185 e.  Many changes to the signal handling:
 186         o Readline now catches SIGQUIT and cleans up the tty before returning;
 187         o A new variable, rl_catch_signals, is available to application writers
 188           to indicate to readline whether or not it should install its own
 189           signal handlers for SIGINT, SIGTERM, SIGQUIT, SIGALRM, SIGTSTP,
 190           SIGTTIN, and SIGTTOU;
 191         o A new variable, rl_catch_sigwinch, is available to application
 192           writers to indicate to readline whether or not it should install its
 193           own signal handler for SIGWINCH, which will chain to the calling
 194           applications's SIGWINCH handler, if one is installed;
 195         o There is a new function, rl_free_line_state, for application signal
 196           handlers to call to free up the state associated with the current
 197           line after receiving a signal;
 198         o There is a new function, rl_cleanup_after_signal, to clean up the
 199           display and terminal state after receiving a signal;
 200         o There is a new function, rl_reset_after_signal, to reinitialize the
 201           terminal and display state after an application signal handler
 202           returns and readline continues
 203
 204 f.  There is a new function, rl_resize_terminal, to reset readline's idea of
 205     the screen size after a SIGWINCH.
 206
 207 g.  New public functions: rl_save_prompt and rl_restore_prompt.  These were
 208     previously private functions with a `_' prefix.  These functions are
 209     used when an application wants to write a message to the `message area'
 210     with rl_message and have the prompt restored correctly when the message
 211     is erased.
 212
 213 h.  New function hook: rl_pre_input_hook, called just before readline starts
 214     reading input, after initialization.
 215
 216 i.  New function hook: rl_display_matches_hook, called when readline would
 217     display the list of completion matches.  The new function
 218     rl_display_match_list is what readline uses internally, and is available
 219     for use by application functions called via this hook.
 220
 221 j.  New bindable function, delete-char-or-list, like tcsh.
 222
 223 k.  A new variable, rl_erase_empty_line, which, if set by an application using
 224     readline, will cause readline to erase, prompt and all, lines on which the
 225     only thing typed was a newline.
 226
 227 l.  There is a new script, support/shlib-install, to install and uninstall
 228     the shared readline and history libraries.
 229
 230 m.  A new bindable variable, `isearch-terminators', which is a string
 231     containing the set of characters that should terminate an incremental
 232     search without being executed as a command.
 233
 234 n.  A new bindable function, forward-backward-delete-char.
 235
 236 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 237 This document details the changes between this version, readline-2.2,
 238 and the previous version, readline-2.1.
 239
 240 1.  Changes to Readline
 241
 242 a.  Added a missing `extern' to a declaration in readline.h that kept
 243     readline from compiling cleanly on some systems.
 244
 245 b.  The history file is now opened with mode 0600 when it is written for
 246     better security.
 247
 248 c.  Changes were made to the SIGWINCH handling code so that prompt redisplay
 249     is done better.
 250
 251 d.  ^G now interrupts incremental searches correctly.
 252
 253 e.  A bug that caused a core dump when the set of characters to be quoted
 254     when completing words was empty was fixed.
 255
 256 f.  Fixed a problem in the readline test program rltest.c that caused a core
 257     dump.
 258
 259 g.  The code that handles parser directives in inputrc files now displays
 260     more error messages.
 261
 262 h.  The history expansion code was fixed so that the appearance of the
 263     history comment character at the beginning of a word inhibits history
 264     expansion for that word and the rest of the input line.
 265
 266 i.  The code that prints completion listings now behaves better if one or
 267     more of the filenames contains non-printable characters.
 268
 269 j.  The time delay when showing matching parentheses is now 0.5 seconds.
 270
 271
 272 2.  New Features in Readline
 273
 274 a.  There is now an option for `iterative' yank-last-arg handline, so a user
 275     can keep entering `M-.', yanking the last argument of successive history
 276     lines.
 277
 278 b.  New variable, `print-completions-horizontally', which causes completion
 279     matches to be displayed across the screen (like `ls -x') rather than up
 280     and down the screen (like `ls').
 281
 282 c.  New variable, `completion-ignore-case', which causes filename completion
 283     and matching to be performed case-insensitively.
 284
 285 d.  There is a new bindable command, `magic-space', which causes history
 286     expansion to be performed on the current readline buffer and a space to
 287     be inserted into the result.
 288
 289 e.  There is a new bindable command, `menu-complete', which enables tcsh-like
 290     menu completion (successive executions of menu-complete insert a single
 291     completion match, cycling through the list of possible completions).
 292
 293 f.  There is a new bindable command, `paste-from-clipboard', for use on Win32
 294     systems, to insert the text from the Win32 clipboard into the editing
 295     buffer.
 296
 297 g.  The key sequence translation code now understands printf-style backslash
 298     escape sequences, including \NNN octal escapes.  These escape sequences
 299     may be used in key sequence definitions or macro values.
 300
 301 h.  An `$include' inputrc file parser directive has been added.