113 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
113 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
Introduction
|
|
============
|
|
|
|
This is the Gnu Readline library, version 2.1.
|
|
|
|
The Readline library provides a set of functions for use by applications
|
|
that allow users to edit command lines as they are typed in. Both
|
|
Emacs and vi editing modes are available. The Readline library includes
|
|
additional functions to maintain a list of previously-entered command
|
|
lines, to recall and perhaps reedit those lines, and perform csh-like
|
|
history expansion on previous commands.
|
|
|
|
The history facilites are also placed into a separate library, the
|
|
History library, as part of the build process. The History library
|
|
may be used without Readline in applications which desire its
|
|
capabilities.
|
|
|
|
The Readline library is free software, distributed under the terms of
|
|
the GNU Public License, version 2. For more information, see the file
|
|
COPYING.
|
|
|
|
To build the library, try typing `./configure', then `make'. The
|
|
configuration process is automated, so no further intervention should
|
|
be necessary. Readline builds with `gcc' by default if it is
|
|
available. If you want to use `cc' instead, type
|
|
|
|
CC=cc ./configure
|
|
|
|
if you are using a Bourne-style shell. If you are not, the following
|
|
may work:
|
|
|
|
env CC=cc ./configure
|
|
|
|
Read the file INSTALL in this directory for more information about how
|
|
to customize and control the build process.
|
|
|
|
The file rlconf.h contains defines that enable and disable certain
|
|
Readline features.
|
|
|
|
Examples
|
|
========
|
|
|
|
There are several example programs that use Readline features in the
|
|
examples directory. The `rl' program is of particular interest. It
|
|
is a command-line interface to Readline, suitable for use in shell
|
|
scripts in place of `read'.
|
|
|
|
Shared Libraries
|
|
================
|
|
|
|
There is skeletal support for building shared versions of the
|
|
Readline and History libraries.
|
|
|
|
Typing `make shared' will cause shared versions of the Readline and
|
|
History libraries to be built on SunOS 4.1.x. For versions of Unix
|
|
other than SunOS, you will have to make some changes to Makefile.in.
|
|
The relevant variables are:
|
|
|
|
PICFLAG Options to give to the compiler to produce position-independent
|
|
code. The value `-fpic' works for most versions of gcc.
|
|
SHLIB_OPTS Options to give to the linker to produce a shared library.
|
|
The value `-assert pure-text -ldl' works on SunOS 4.1.x.
|
|
The value `-Bshareable' works for some versions of GNU ld.
|
|
|
|
MAJOR The major version number of the shared library. You should
|
|
not need to change this.
|
|
MINOR The minor version number of the shared library. Some systems,
|
|
such as SVR4 and its descendents (e.g., Solaris, Unixware),
|
|
do not use minor version numbers. For those systems, this
|
|
variable should be left unset.
|
|
|
|
LD The linker. The value of `ld' is correct for SunOS 4.1.x.
|
|
You may need to change it to `gcc'; make sure to change
|
|
SHLIB_OPTS if you do so.
|
|
|
|
Once you have edited Makefile.in, type `make Makefile' to rebuild the
|
|
Makefile, then `make shared' to build the shared libraries.
|
|
|
|
Documentation
|
|
=============
|
|
|
|
The documentation for the Readline and History libraries appears in the
|
|
`doc' subdirectory. There are two texinfo files and a Unix-style manual
|
|
page describing the programming facilities available in the Readline
|
|
library. The texinfo files include both user and programmer's manuals.
|
|
|
|
Reporting Bugs
|
|
==============
|
|
|
|
Bug reports for Readline should be sent to:
|
|
|
|
bug-readline@prep.ai.mit.edu
|
|
|
|
When reporting a bug, please include the following information:
|
|
|
|
* the version number and release status of Readline (e.g., 2.1-release)
|
|
* the machine and OS that it is running on
|
|
* a list of the compilation flags or the contents of `config.h', if
|
|
appropriate
|
|
* a description of the bug
|
|
* a recipe for recreating the bug reliably
|
|
* a fix for the bug if you have one!
|
|
|
|
If you would like to contact the Readline maintainer directly, send mail
|
|
to bash-maintainers@prep.ai.mit.edu.
|
|
|
|
Since Readline is developed along with bash, the bug-bash@prep.ai.mit.edu
|
|
mailing list (mirrored to the Usenet newsgroup gnu.bash.bug) often contains
|
|
Readline bug reports and fixes.
|
|
|
|
Chet Ramey
|
|
chet@po.cwru.edu
|