readline/readline/NEWS

   1 This is a terse description of the new features added to readline-8.1 since
   2 the release of readline-8.0.
   3
   4 New Features in Readline
   5
   6 a. If a second consecutive completion attempt produces matches where the first
   7    did not, treat it as a new completion attempt and insert a match as
   8    appropriate.
   9
  10 b. Bracketed paste mode works in more places: incremental search strings, vi
  11    overstrike mode, character search, and reading numeric arguments.
  12
  13 c. Readline automatically switches to horizontal scrolling if the terminal has
  14    only one line.
  15
  16 d. Unbinding all key sequences bound to a particular readline function now
  17    descends into keymaps for multi-key sequences.
  18
  19 e. rl-clear-display: new bindable command that clears the screen and, if
  20    possible, the scrollback buffer (bound to emacs mode M-C-l by default).
  21
  22 f. New active mark and face feature: when enabled, it will highlight the text
  23    inserted by a bracketed paste (the `active region') and the text found by
  24    incremental and non-incremental history searches. This is tied to bracketed
  25    paste and can be disabled by turning off bracketed paste.
  26
  27 g. Readline sets the mark in several additional commands.
  28
  29 h. Bracketed paste mode is enabled by default. There is a configure-time
  30    option (--enable-bracketed-paste-default) to set the default to on or off.
  31
  32 i. Readline tries to take advantage of the more regular structure of UTF-8
  33    characters to identify the beginning and end of characters when moving
  34    through the line buffer.
  35
  36 j. The bindable operate-and-get-next command (and its default bindings) are
  37    now part of readline instead of a bash-specific addition.
  38
  39 k. The signal cleanup code now blocks SIGINT while processing after a SIGINT.
  40
  41 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  42 This is a terse description of the new features added to readline-8.0 since
  43 the release of readline-7.0.
  44
  45 New Features in Readline
  46
  47 a. Non-incremental vi-mode search (`N', `n') can search for a shell pattern, as
  48    Posix specifies (uses fnmatch(3) if available).
  49
  50 b. There are new `next-screen-line' and `previous-screen-line' bindable
  51    commands, which move the cursor to the same column in the next, or previous,
  52    physical line, respectively.
  53
  54 c. There are default key bindings for control-arrow-key key combinations.
  55
  56 d. A negative argument (-N) to `quoted-insert' means to insert the next N
  57    characters using quoted-insert.
  58
  59 e. New public function: rl_check_signals(), which allows applications to
  60    respond to signals that readline catches while waiting for input using
  61    a custom read function.
  62
  63 f. There is new support for conditionally testing the readline version in an
  64    inputrc file, with a full set of arithmetic comparison operators available.
  65
  66 g. There is a simple variable comparison facility available for use within an
  67    inputrc file. Allowable operators are equality and inequality; string
  68    variables may be compared to a value; boolean variables must be compared to
  69    either `on' or `off'; variable names are separated from the operator by
  70    whitespace.
  71
  72 h. The history expansion library now understands command and process
  73    substitution and extended globbing and allows them to appear anywhere in a
  74    word.
  75
  76 i. The history library has a new variable that allows applications to set the
  77    initial quoting state, so quoting state can be inherited from a previous
  78    line.
  79
  80 j. Readline now allows application-defined keymap names; there is a new public
  81    function, rl_set_keymap_name(), to do that.
  82
  83 k. The "Insert" keypad key, if available, now puts readline into overwrite
  84    mode.
  85
  86 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  87 This is a terse description of the new features added to readline-7.0 since
  88 the release of readline-6.3.
  89
  90 New Features in Readline
  91
  92 a.  The history truncation code now uses the same error recovery mechansim as
  93     the history writing code, and restores the old version of the history file
  94     on error.  The error recovery mechanism handles symlinked history files.
  95
  96 b.  There is a new bindable variable, `enable-bracketed-paste', which enables
  97     support for a terminal's bracketed paste mode.
  98
  99 c.  The editing mode indicators can now be strings and are user-settable
 100     (new `emacs-mode-string', `vi-cmd-mode-string' and `vi-ins-mode-string'
 101     variables).  Mode strings can contain invisible character sequences.
 102     Setting mode strings to null strings restores the defaults.
 103
 104 d.  Prompt expansion adds the mode string to the last line of a multi-line
 105     prompt (one with embedded newlines).
 106
 107 e.  There is a new bindable variable, `colored-completion-prefix', which, if
 108     set, causes the common prefix of a set of possible completions to be
 109     displayed in color.
 110
 111 f.  There is a new bindable command `vi-yank-pop', a vi-mode version of emacs-
 112     mode yank-pop.
 113
 114 g.  The redisplay code underwent several efficiency improvements for multibyte
 115     locales.
 116
 117 h.  The insert-char function attempts to batch-insert all pending typeahead
 118     that maps to self-insert, as long as it is coming from the terminal.
 119
 120 i.  rl_callback_sigcleanup: a new application function that can clean up and
 121     unset any state set by readline's callback mode.  Intended to be used
 122     after a signal.
 123
 124 j.  If an incremental search string has its last character removed with DEL, the
 125     resulting empty search string no longer matches the previous line.
 126
 127 k.  If readline reads a history file that begins with `#' (or the value of
 128     the history comment character) and has enabled history timestamps, the history
 129     entries are assumed to be delimited by timestamps.  This allows multi-line
 130     history entries.
 131
 132 l.  Readline now throws an error if it parses a key binding without a terminating
 133     `:' or whitespace.
 134
 135 m.  The default binding for ^W in vi mode now uses word boundaries specified
 136     by Posix (vi-unix-word-rubout is bindable command name).
 137
 138 n.  rl_clear_visible_line: new application-callable function; clears all
 139     screen lines occupied by the current visible readline line.
 140
 141 o.  rl_tty_set_echoing: application-callable function that controls whether
 142     or not readline thinks it is echoing terminal output.
 143
 144 p.  Handle >| and strings of digits preceding and following redirection
 145     specifications as single tokens when tokenizing the line for history
 146     expansion.
 147
 148 q.  Fixed a bug with displaying completions when the prefix display length
 149     is greater than the length of the completions to be displayed.
 150
 151 r.  The :p history modifier now applies to the entire line, so any expansion
 152     specifying :p causes the line to be printed instead of expanded.
 153
 154 s.  New application-callable function: rl_pending_signal(): returns the signal
 155     number of any signal readline has caught but not yet handled.
 156
 157 t.  New application-settable variable: rl_persistent_signal_handlers: if set
 158     to a non-zero value, readline will enable the readline-6.2 signal handler
 159     behavior in callback mode: handlers are installed when
 160     rl_callback_handler_install is called and removed removed when a complete
 161     line has been read.
 162
 163 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 164 This is a terse description of the new features added to readline-6.3 since
 165 the release of readline-6.2.
 166
 167 New Features in Readline
 168
 169 a.  Readline is now more responsive to SIGHUP and other fatal signals when
 170     reading input from the terminal or performing word completion but no
 171     longer attempts to run any not-allowable functions from a signal handler
 172     context.
 173
 174 b.  There are new bindable commands to search the history for the string of
 175     characters between the beginning of the line and the point
 176     (history-substring-search-forward, history-substring-search-backward)
 177
 178 c.  Readline allows quoted strings as the values of variables when setting
 179     them with `set'.  As a side effect, trailing spaces and tabs are ignored
 180     when setting a string variable's value.
 181
 182 d.  The history library creates a backup of the history file when writing it
 183     and restores the backup on a write error.
 184
 185 e.  New application-settable variable: rl_filename_stat_hook: a function called
 186     with a filename before using it in a call to stat(2).  Bash uses it to
 187     expand shell variables so things like $HOME/Downloads have a slash
 188     appended.
 189
 190 f.  New bindable function `print-last-kbd-macro', prints the most-recently-
 191     defined keyboard macro in a reusable format.
 192
 193 g.  New user-settable variable `colored-stats', enables use of colored text
 194     to denote file types when displaying possible completions (colored analog
 195     of visible-stats).
 196
 197 h.  New user-settable variable `keyseq-timout', acts as an inter-character
 198     timeout when reading input or incremental search strings.
 199
 200 i.  New application-callable function: rl_clear_history. Clears the history list
 201     and frees all readline-associated private data.
 202
 203 j.  New user-settable variable, show-mode-in-prompt, adds a characters to the
 204     beginning of the prompt indicating the current editing mode.
 205
 206 k.  New application-settable variable: rl_input_available_hook; function to be
 207     called when readline detects there is data available on its input file
 208     descriptor.
 209
 210 l.  Readline calls an application-set event hook (rl_event_hook) after it gets
 211     a signal while reading input (read returns -1/EINTR but readline does not
 212     handle the signal immediately) to allow the application to handle or
 213     otherwise note it.
 214
 215 m.  If the user-settable variable `history-size' is set to a value less than
 216     0, the history list size is unlimited.
 217
 218 n.  New application-settable variable: rl_signal_event_hook; function that is
 219     called when readline is reading terminal input and read(2) is interrupted
 220     by a signal.  Currently not called for SIGHUP or SIGTERM.
 221
 222 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 223 This is a terse description of the new features added to readline-6.2 since
 224 the release of readline-6.1.
 225
 226 a.  The history library does not try to write the history filename in the
 227     current directory if $HOME is unset.  This closes a potential security
 228     problem if the application does not specify a history filename.
 229
 230 b.  New bindable variable `completion-display-width' to set the number of
 231     columns used when displaying completions.
 232
 233 c.  New bindable variable `completion-case-map' to cause case-insensitive
 234     completion to treat `-' and `_' as identical.
 235
 236 d.  There are new bindable vi-mode command names to avoid readline's case-
 237     insensitive matching not allowing them to be bound separately.
 238
 239 e.  New bindable variable `menu-complete-display-prefix' causes the menu
 240     completion code to display the common prefix of the possible completions
 241     before cycling through the list, instead of after.
 242
 243 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 244 This is a terse description of the new features added to readline-6.1 since
 245 the release of readline-6.0.
 246
 247 New Features in Readline
 248
 249 a.  New bindable function: menu-complete-backward.
 250
 251 b.  In the vi insertion keymap, C-n is now bound to menu-complete by default,
 252     and C-p to menu-complete-backward.
 253
 254 c.  When in vi command mode, repeatedly hitting ESC now does nothing, even
 255     when ESC introduces a bound key sequence.  This is closer to how
 256     historical vi behaves.
 257
 258 d.  New bindable function: skip-csi-sequence.  Can be used as a default to
 259     consume key sequences generated by keys like Home and End without having
 260     to bind all keys.
 261
 262 e.  New application-settable function: rl_filename_rewrite_hook.  Can be used
 263     to rewite or modify filenames read from the file system before they are
 264     compared to the word to be completed.
 265
 266 f.  New bindable variable: skip-completed-text, active when completing in the
 267     middle of a word.  If enabled, it means that characters in the completion
 268     that match characters in the remainder of the word are "skipped" rather
 269     than inserted into the line.
 270
 271 g.  The pre-readline-6.0 version of menu completion is available as
 272     "old-menu-complete" for users who do not like the readline-6.0 version.
 273
 274 h.  New bindable variable: echo-control-characters.  If enabled, and the
 275     tty ECHOCTL bit is set, controls the echoing of characters corresponding
 276     to keyboard-generated signals.
 277
 278 i.  New bindable variable: enable-meta-key.  Controls whether or not readline
 279     sends the smm/rmm sequences if the terminal indicates it has a meta key
 280     that enables eight-bit characters.
 281
 282 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 283 This is a terse description of the new features added to readline-6.0 since
 284 the release of readline-5.2.
 285
 286 New Features in Readline
 287
 288 a.  A new variable, rl_sort_completion_matches; allows applications to inhibit
 289     match list sorting (but beware: some things don't work right if
 290     applications do this).
 291
 292 b.  A new variable, rl_completion_invoking_key; allows applications to discover
 293     the key that invoked rl_complete or rl_menu_complete.
 294
 295 c.  The functions rl_block_sigint and rl_release_sigint are now public and
 296     available to calling applications who want to protect critical sections
 297     (like redisplay).
 298
 299 d.  The functions rl_save_state and rl_restore_state are now public and
 300     available to calling applications; documented rest of readline's state
 301     flag values.
 302
 303 e.  A new user-settable variable, `history-size', allows setting the maximum
 304     number of entries in the history list.
 305
 306 f.  There is a new implementation of menu completion, with several improvements
 307     over the old; the most notable improvement is a better `completions
 308     browsing' mode.
 309
 310 g.  The menu completion code now uses the rl_menu_completion_entry_function
 311     variable, allowing applications to provide their own menu completion
 312     generators.
 313
 314 h.  There is support for replacing a prefix  of a pathname with a `...' when
 315     displaying possible completions.  This is controllable by setting the
 316     `completion-prefix-display-length' variable.  Matches with a common prefix
 317     longer than this value have the common prefix replaced with `...'.
 318
 319 i.  There is a new `revert-all-at-newline' variable.  If enabled, readline will
 320     undo all outstanding changes to all history lines when `accept-line' is
 321     executed.
 322
 323 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 324 This is a terse description of the new features added to readline-5.2 since
 325 the release of readline-5.1.
 326
 327 New Features in Readline
 328
 329 a.  Calling applications can now set the keyboard timeout to 0, allowing
 330     poll-like behavior.
 331
 332 b.  The value of SYS_INPUTRC (configurable at compilation time) is now used as
 333     the default last-ditch startup file.
 334
 335 c.  The history file reading functions now allow windows-like \r\n line
 336     terminators.
 337
 338 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 339 This is a terse description of the new features added to readline-5.1 since
 340 the release of readline-5.0.
 341
 342 New Features in Readline
 343
 344 a.  The key sequence sent by the keypad `delete' key is now automatically
 345     bound to delete-char.
 346
 347 b.  A negative argument to menu-complete now cycles backward through the
 348     completion list.
 349
 350 c.  A new bindable readline variable:  bind-tty-special-chars.  If non-zero,
 351     readline will bind the terminal special characters to their readline
 352     equivalents when it's called (on by default).
 353
 354 d.  New bindable command: vi-rubout.  Saves deleted text for possible
 355     reinsertion, as with any vi-mode `text modification' command; `X' is bound
 356     to this in vi command mode.
 357
 358 e.  If the rl_completion_query_items is set to a value < 0, readline never
 359     asks the user whether or not to view the possible completions.
 360
 361 f.  New application-callable auxiliary function, rl_variable_value, returns
 362     a string corresponding to a readline variable's value.
 363
 364 g.  When parsing inputrc files and variable binding commands, the parser
 365     strips trailing whitespace from values assigned to boolean variables
 366     before checking them.
 367
 368 h.  A new external application-controllable variable that allows the LINES
 369     and COLUMNS environment variables to set the window size regardless of
 370     what the kernel returns.
 371
 372
 373 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 374 This is a terse description of the new features added to readline-5.0 since
 375 the release of readline-4.3.
 376
 377 New Features in Readline
 378
 379 a.  History expansion has a new `a' modifier equivalent to the `g' modifier
 380     for compatibility with the BSD csh.
 381
 382 b.  History expansion has a new `G' modifier equivalent to the BSD csh `g'
 383     modifier, which performs a substitution once per word.
 384
 385 c.  All non-incremental search operations may now undo the operation of
 386     replacing the current line with the history line.
 387
 388 d.  The text inserted by an `a' command in vi mode can be reinserted with
 389     `.'.
 390
 391 e.  New bindable variable, `show-all-if-unmodified'.  If set, the readline
 392     completer will list possible completions immediately if there is more
 393     than one completion and partial completion cannot be performed.
 394
 395 f.  There is a new application-callable `free_history_entry()' function.
 396
 397 g.  History list entries now contain timestamp information; the history file
 398     functions know how to read and write timestamp information associated
 399     with each entry.
 400
 401 h.  Four new key binding functions have been added:
 402
 403         rl_bind_key_if_unbound()
 404         rl_bind_key_if_unbound_in_map()
 405         rl_bind_keyseq_if_unbound()
 406         rl_bind_keyseq_if_unbound_in_map()
 407
 408 i.  New application variable, rl_completion_quote_character, set to any
 409     quote character readline finds before it calls the application completion
 410     function.
 411
 412 j.  New application variable, rl_completion_suppress_quote, settable by an
 413     application completion function.  If set to non-zero, readline does not
 414     attempt to append a closing quote to a completed word.
 415
 416 k.  New application variable, rl_completion_found_quote, set to a non-zero
 417     value if readline determines that the word to be completed is quoted.
 418     Set before readline calls any application completion function.
 419
 420 l.  New function hook, rl_completion_word_break_hook, called when readline
 421     needs to break a line into words when completion is attempted.  Allows
 422     the word break characters to vary based on position in the line.
 423
 424 m.  New bindable command: unix-filename-rubout.  Does the same thing as
 425     unix-word-rubout, but adds `/' to the set of word delimiters.
 426
 427 n.  When listing completions, directories have a `/' appended if the
 428     `mark-directories' option has been enabled.