CHANGES revision 58310
1This document details the changes between this version, readline-4.1,
2and the previous version, readline-4.0.
3
41.  Changes to Readline
5
6a.  Changed the HTML documents so that the table-of-contents is no longer
7    a separate file.
8
9b.  Changes to the shared object configuration for: Irix 5.x, Irix 6.x,
10    OSF/1.
11
12c.  The shared library major and minor versions are now constructed
13    automatically by configure and substituted into the makefiles.
14
15d.  It's now possible to install the shared libraries separately from the
16    static libraries.
17
18e.  The history library tries to truncate the history file only if it is a
19    regular file.
20
21f.  A bug that caused _rl_dispatch to address negative array indices on
22    systems with signed chars was fixed.
23
24g.  rl-yank-nth-arg now leaves the history position the same as when it was
25    called.
26
27h.  Changes to the completion code to handle MS-DOS drive-letter:pathname
28    filenames.
29
30i.  Completion is now case-insensitive by default on MS-DOS.
31
32j.  Fixes to the history file manipulation code for MS-DOS.
33
34k.  Readline attempts to bind the arrow keys to appropriate defaults on MS-DOS.
35
36l.  Some fixes were made to the redisplay code for better operation on MS-DOS.
37
38m.  The quoted-insert code will now insert tty special chars like ^C.
39
40n.  A bug was fixed that caused the display code to reference memory before
41    the start of the prompt string.
42
43o.  More support for __EMX__ (OS/2).
44
45p.  A bug was fixed in readline's signal handling that could cause infinite
46    recursion in signal handlers.
47
48q.  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
51r.  The vi-mode code now gets characters via the application-settable value
52    of rl_getc_function rather than calling rl_getc directly.
53
54s.  The history file code now uses O_BINARY mode when reading and writing
55    the history file on cygwin32.
56
57t.  Fixed a bug in the redisplay code for lines with more than 256 line
58    breaks.
59
60u.  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    
63v.  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
68w.  Fixes to the SIGWINCH code so that a multiple-line prompt with escape
69    sequences is redrawn correctly.
70
71x.  Changes to the install and install-shared targets so that the libraries
72    and header files are installed separately.
73
742.  New Features in Readline
75
76a.  A new Readline `user manual' is in doc/rluserman.texinfo.
77
78b.  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
82c.  MS-DOS systems now use ~/_inputrc as the last-ditch inputrc filename.
83
84d.  MS-DOS systems now use ~/_history as the default history file.
85
86e.  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
90f.  history-search-{forward,backward} now leave the last history line found
91    in the readline buffer if the second or subsequent search fails.
92
93g.  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
96h.  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
100i.  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
104j.  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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
109This document details the changes between this version, readline-4.0,
110and the previous version, readline-2.2.
111
1121.  Changes to Readline
113
114a.  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
118b.  Fixed a typo in the `make install' recipe that copied libreadline.a
119    to libhistory.old right after installing it.
120
121c.  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
124d.  The library no longer exports a function named `savestring' -- backwards
125    compatibility be damned.
126
127e.  There is no longer any #ifdef SHELL code in the source files.
128
129f.  Some changes were made to the key binding code to fix memory leaks and
130    better support Win32 systems.
131
132g.  Fixed a silly typo in the paren matching code -- it's microseconds, not
133    milliseconds.
134
135h.  The readline library should be compilable by C++ compilers.
136
137i.  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
141j.  The maximum numeric argument is now clamped at 1000000.
142
143k.  Fixes to rl_yank_last_arg to make it behave better.
144
145l.  Fixed a bug in the display code that caused core dumps if the prompt
146    string length exceeded 1024 characters.
147
148m.  The menu completion code was fixed to properly insert a single completion
149    if there is only one match.
150
151n.  A bug was fixed that caused the display code to improperly display tabs
152    after newlines.
153
154o.  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
158p.  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
163q.  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
1682.  New Features in Readline
169
170a.  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
175b.  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
180c.  rlconf.h is now installed, so applications can find out which features
181    have been compiled into the installed readline and history libraries.
182
183d.  rlstdc.h is now an installed header file.
184
185e.  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
204f.  There is a new function, rl_resize_terminal, to reset readline's idea of
205    the screen size after a SIGWINCH.
206
207g.  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
213h.  New function hook: rl_pre_input_hook, called just before readline starts
214    reading input, after initialization.
215
216i.  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
221j.  New bindable function, delete-char-or-list, like tcsh.
222
223k.  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
227l.  There is a new script, support/shlib-install, to install and uninstall
228    the shared readline and history libraries.
229
230m.  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
234n.  A new bindable function, forward-backward-delete-char.
235
236-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
237This document details the changes between this version, readline-2.2,
238and the previous version, readline-2.1.
239
2401.  Changes to Readline
241
242a.  Added a missing `extern' to a declaration in readline.h that kept
243    readline from compiling cleanly on some systems.
244
245b.  The history file is now opened with mode 0600 when it is written for
246    better security.
247
248c.  Changes were made to the SIGWINCH handling code so that prompt redisplay
249    is done better.
250
251d.  ^G now interrupts incremental searches correctly.
252
253e.  A bug that caused a core dump when the set of characters to be quoted
254    when completing words was empty was fixed.
255
256f.  Fixed a problem in the readline test program rltest.c that caused a core
257    dump.
258
259g.  The code that handles parser directives in inputrc files now displays
260    more error messages.
261
262h.  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
266i.  The code that prints completion listings now behaves better if one or
267    more of the filenames contains non-printable characters.
268
269j.  The time delay when showing matching parentheses is now 0.5 seconds.
270
271
2722.  New Features in Readline
273
274a.  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
278b.  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
282c.  New variable, `completion-ignore-case', which causes filename completion
283    and matching to be performed case-insensitively.
284
285d.  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
289e.  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
293f.  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
297g.  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
301h.  An `$include' inputrc file parser directive has been added.
302