This document details the changes between this version, readline-4.0, and the previous version, readline-2.2. 1. Changes to Readline a. The version number is now 4.0, to match the major and minor version numbers on the shared readline and history libraries. Future releases will maintain the identical numbering. b. Fixed a typo in the `make install' recipe that copied libreadline.a to libhistory.old right after installing it. c. The readline and history info files are now installed out of the source directory if they are not found in the build directory. d. The library no longer exports a function named `savestring' -- backwards compatibility be damned. e. There is no longer any #ifdef SHELL code in the source files. f. Some changes were made to the key binding code to fix memory leaks and better support Win32 systems. g. Fixed a silly typo in the paren matching code -- it's microseconds, not milliseconds. h. The readline library should be compilable by C++ compilers. i. The readline.h public header file now includes function prototypes for all readline functions, and some changes were made to fix errors in the source files uncovered by the use of prototypes. j. The maximum numeric argument is now clamped at 1000000. k. Fixes to rl_yank_last_arg to make it behave better. l. Fixed a bug in the display code that caused core dumps if the prompt string length exceeded 1024 characters. m. The menu completion code was fixed to properly insert a single completion if there is only one match. n. A bug was fixed that caused the display code to improperly display tabs after newlines. o. A fix was made to the completion code in which a typo caused the wrong value to be passed to the function that computed the longest common prefix of the list of matches. p. The completion code now checks the value of rl_filename_completion_desired, which is set by application-supplied completion functions to indicate that filename completion is being performed, to decide whether or not to call an application-supplied `ignore completions' function. q. Code was added to the history library to catch history substitutions using `&' without a previous history substitution or search having been performed. 2. New Features in Readline a. There is a new script, support/shobj-conf, to do system-specific shared object and library configuration. It generates variables for configure to substitute into makefiles. The README file provides a detailed explanation of the shared library creation process. b. Shared libraries and objects are now built in the `shlib' subdirectory. There is a shlib/Makefile.in to control the build process. `make shared' from the top-level directory is still the right way to build shared versions of the libraries. c. rlconf.h is now installed, so applications can find out which features have been compiled into the installed readline and history libraries. d. rlstdc.h is now an installed header file. e. Many changes to the signal handling: o Readline now catches SIGQUIT and cleans up the tty before returning; o A new variable, rl_catch_signals, is available to application writers to indicate to readline whether or not it should install its own signal handlers for SIGINT, SIGTERM, SIGQUIT, SIGALRM, SIGTSTP, SIGTTIN, and SIGTTOU; o A new variable, rl_catch_sigwinch, is available to application writers to indicate to readline whether or not it should install its own signal handler for SIGWINCH, which will chain to the calling applications's SIGWINCH handler, if one is installed; o There is a new function, rl_free_line_state, for application signal handlers to call to free up the state associated with the current line after receiving a signal; o There is a new function, rl_cleanup_after_signal, to clean up the display and terminal state after receiving a signal; o There is a new function, rl_reset_after_signal, to reinitialize the terminal and display state after an application signal handler returns and readline continues f. There is a new function, rl_resize_terminal, to reset readline's idea of the screen size after a SIGWINCH. g. New public functions: rl_save_prompt and rl_restore_prompt. These were previously private functions with a `_' prefix. These functions are used when an application wants to write a message to the `message area' with rl_message and have the prompt restored correctly when the message is erased. h. New function hook: rl_pre_input_hook, called just before readline starts reading input, after initialization. i. New function hook: rl_display_matches_hook, called when readline would display the list of completion matches. The new function rl_display_match_list is what readline uses internally, and is available for use by application functions called via this hook. j. New bindable function, delete-char-or-list, like tcsh. k. A new variable, rl_erase_empty_line, which, if set by an application using readline, will cause readline to erase, prompt and all, lines on which the only thing typed was a newline. l. There is a new script, support/shlib-install, to install and uninstall the shared readline and history libraries. m. A new bindable variable, `isearch-terminators', which is a string containing the set of characters that should terminate an incremental search without being executed as a command. n. A new bindable function, forward-backward-delete-char. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This document details the changes between this version, readline-2.2, and the previous version, readline-2.1. 1. Changes to Readline a. Added a missing `extern' to a declaration in readline.h that kept readline from compiling cleanly on some systems. b. The history file is now opened with mode 0600 when it is written for better security. c. Changes were made to the SIGWINCH handling code so that prompt redisplay is done better. d. ^G now interrupts incremental searches correctly. e. A bug that caused a core dump when the set of characters to be quoted when completing words was empty was fixed. f. Fixed a problem in the readline test program rltest.c that caused a core dump. g. The code that handles parser directives in inputrc files now displays more error messages. h. The history expansion code was fixed so that the appearance of the history comment character at the beginning of a word inhibits history expansion for that word and the rest of the input line. i. The code that prints completion listings now behaves better if one or more of the filenames contains non-printable characters. j. The time delay when showing matching parentheses is now 0.5 seconds. 2. New Features in Readline a. There is now an option for `iterative' yank-last-arg handline, so a user can keep entering `M-.', yanking the last argument of successive history lines. b. New variable, `print-completions-horizontally', which causes completion matches to be displayed across the screen (like `ls -x') rather than up and down the screen (like `ls'). c. New variable, `completion-ignore-case', which causes filename completion and matching to be performed case-insensitively. d. There is a new bindable command, `magic-space', which causes history expansion to be performed on the current readline buffer and a space to be inserted into the result. e. There is a new bindable command, `menu-complete', which enables tcsh-like menu completion (successive executions of menu-complete insert a single completion match, cycling through the list of possible completions). f. There is a new bindable command, `paste-from-clipboard', for use on Win32 systems, to insert the text from the Win32 clipboard into the editing buffer. g. The key sequence translation code now understands printf-style backslash escape sequences, including \NNN octal escapes. These escape sequences may be used in key sequence definitions or macro values. h. An `$include' inputrc file parser directive has been added.