1Introduction 2============ 3 4This is the Gnu Readline library, version 6.2. 5 6The Readline library provides a set of functions for use by applications 7that allow users to edit command lines as they are typed in. Both 8Emacs and vi editing modes are available. The Readline library includes 9additional functions to maintain a list of previously-entered command 10lines, to recall and perhaps reedit those lines, and perform csh-like 11history expansion on previous commands. 12 13The history facilites are also placed into a separate library, the 14History library, as part of the build process. The History library 15may be used without Readline in applications which desire its 16capabilities. 17 18The Readline library is free software, distributed under the terms of 19the [GNU] General Public License as published by the Free Software 20Foundation, version 3 of the License. For more information, see the 21file COPYING. 22 23To build the library, try typing `./configure', then `make'. The 24configuration process is automated, so no further intervention should 25be necessary. Readline builds with `gcc' by default if it is 26available. If you want to use `cc' instead, type 27 28 CC=cc ./configure 29 30if you are using a Bourne-style shell. If you are not, the following 31may work: 32 33 env CC=cc ./configure 34 35Read the file INSTALL in this directory for more information about how 36to customize and control the build process. 37 38The file rlconf.h contains C preprocessor defines that enable and disable 39certain Readline features. 40 41The special make target `everything' will build the static and shared 42libraries (if the target platform supports them) and the examples. 43 44Examples 45======== 46 47There are several example programs that use Readline features in the 48examples directory. The `rl' program is of particular interest. It 49is a command-line interface to Readline, suitable for use in shell 50scripts in place of `read'. 51 52Shared Libraries 53================ 54 55There is skeletal support for building shared versions of the 56Readline and History libraries. The configure script creates 57a Makefile in the `shlib' subdirectory, and typing `make shared' 58will cause shared versions of the Readline and History libraries 59to be built on supported platforms. 60 61If `configure' is given the `--enable-shared' option, it will attempt 62to build the shared libraries by default on supported platforms. 63 64Configure calls the script support/shobj-conf to test whether or 65not shared library creation is supported and to generate the values 66of variables that are substituted into shlib/Makefile. If you 67try to build shared libraries on an unsupported platform, `make' 68will display a message asking you to update support/shobj-conf for 69your platform. 70 71If you need to update support/shobj-conf, you will need to create 72a `stanza' for your operating system and compiler. The script uses 73the value of host_os and ${CC} as determined by configure. For 74instance, FreeBSD 4.2 with any version of gcc is identified as 75`freebsd4.2-gcc*'. 76 77In the stanza for your operating system-compiler pair, you will need to 78define several variables. They are: 79 80SHOBJ_CC The C compiler used to compile source files into shareable 81 object files. This is normally set to the value of ${CC} 82 by configure, and should not need to be changed. 83 84SHOBJ_CFLAGS Flags to pass to the C compiler ($SHOBJ_CC) to create 85 position-independent code. If you are using gcc, this 86 should probably be set to `-fpic'. 87 88SHOBJ_LD The link editor to be used to create the shared library from 89 the object files created by $SHOBJ_CC. If you are using 90 gcc, a value of `gcc' will probably work. 91 92SHOBJ_LDFLAGS Flags to pass to SHOBJ_LD to enable shared object creation. 93 If you are using gcc, `-shared' may be all that is necessary. 94 These should be the flags needed for generic shared object 95 creation. 96 97SHLIB_XLDFLAGS Additional flags to pass to SHOBJ_LD for shared library 98 creation. Many systems use the -R option to the link 99 editor to embed a path within the library for run-time 100 library searches. A reasonable value for such systems would 101 be `-R$(libdir)'. 102 103SHLIB_LIBS Any additional libraries that shared libraries should be 104 linked against when they are created. 105 106SHLIB_LIBPREF The prefix to use when generating the filename of the shared 107 library. The default is `lib'; Cygwin uses `cyg'. 108 109SHLIB_LIBSUFF The suffix to add to `libreadline' and `libhistory' when 110 generating the filename of the shared library. Many systems 111 use `so'; HP-UX uses `sl'. 112 113SHLIB_LIBVERSION The string to append to the filename to indicate the version 114 of the shared library. It should begin with $(SHLIB_LIBSUFF), 115 and possibly include version information that allows the 116 run-time loader to load the version of the shared library 117 appropriate for a particular program. Systems using shared 118 libraries similar to SunOS 4.x use major and minor library 119 version numbers; for those systems a value of 120 `$(SHLIB_LIBSUFF).$(SHLIB_MAJOR)$(SHLIB_MINOR)' is appropriate. 121 Systems based on System V Release 4 don't use minor version 122 numbers; use `$(SHLIB_LIBSUFF).$(SHLIB_MAJOR)' on those systems. 123 Other Unix versions use different schemes. 124 125SHLIB_DLLVERSION The version number for shared libraries that determines API 126 compatibility between readline versions and the underlying 127 system. Used only on Cygwin. Defaults to $SHLIB_MAJOR, but 128 can be overridden at configuration time by defining DLLVERSION 129 in the environment. 130 131SHLIB_DOT The character used to separate the name of the shared library 132 from the suffix and version information. The default is `.'; 133 systems like Cygwin which don't separate version information 134 from the library name should set this to the empty string. 135 136SHLIB_STATUS Set this to `supported' when you have defined the other 137 necessary variables. Make uses this to determine whether 138 or not shared library creation should be attempted. 139 140You should look at the existing stanzas in support/shobj-conf for ideas. 141 142Once you have updated support/shobj-conf, re-run configure and type 143`make shared'. The shared libraries will be created in the shlib 144subdirectory. 145 146If shared libraries are created, `make install' will install them. 147You may install only the shared libraries by running `make 148install-shared' from the top-level build directory. Running `make 149install' in the shlib subdirectory will also work. If you don't want 150to install any created shared libraries, run `make install-static'. 151 152Documentation 153============= 154 155The documentation for the Readline and History libraries appears in 156the `doc' subdirectory. There are three texinfo files and a 157Unix-style manual page describing the facilities available in the 158Readline library. The texinfo files include both user and 159programmer's manuals. HTML versions of the manuals appear in the 160`doc' subdirectory as well. 161 162Reporting Bugs 163============== 164 165Bug reports for Readline should be sent to: 166 167 bug-readline@gnu.org 168 169When reporting a bug, please include the following information: 170 171 * the version number and release status of Readline (e.g., 4.2-release) 172 * the machine and OS that it is running on 173 * a list of the compilation flags or the contents of `config.h', if 174 appropriate 175 * a description of the bug 176 * a recipe for recreating the bug reliably 177 * a fix for the bug if you have one! 178 179If you would like to contact the Readline maintainer directly, send mail 180to bash-maintainers@gnu.org. 181 182Since Readline is developed along with bash, the bug-bash@gnu.org mailing 183list (mirrored to the Usenet newsgroup gnu.bash.bug) often contains 184Readline bug reports and fixes. 185 186Chet Ramey 187chet.ramey@case.edu 188