README revision 35486
1Introduction 2============ 3 4This is the Gnu Readline library, version 2.2 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 Public License, version 2. For more information, see the file 20COPYING. 21 22To build the library, try typing `./configure', then `make'. The 23configuration process is automated, so no further intervention should 24be necessary. Readline builds with `gcc' by default if it is 25available. If you want to use `cc' instead, type 26 27 CC=cc ./configure 28 29if you are using a Bourne-style shell. If you are not, the following 30may work: 31 32 env CC=cc ./configure 33 34Read the file INSTALL in this directory for more information about how 35to customize and control the build process. 36 37The file rlconf.h contains defines that enable and disable certain 38Readline features. 39 40Examples 41======== 42 43There are several example programs that use Readline features in the 44examples directory. The `rl' program is of particular interest. It 45is a command-line interface to Readline, suitable for use in shell 46scripts in place of `read'. 47 48Shared Libraries 49================ 50 51There is skeletal support for building shared versions of the 52Readline and History libraries. 53 54Typing `make shared' will cause shared versions of the Readline and 55History libraries to be built on SunOS 4.1.x. For versions of Unix 56other than SunOS, you will have to make some changes to Makefile.in. 57The relevant variables are: 58 59PICFLAG Options to give to the compiler to produce position-independent 60 code. The value `-fpic' works for most versions of gcc. 61SHLIB_OPTS Options to give to the linker to produce a shared library. 62 The value `-assert pure-text -ldl' works on SunOS 4.1.x. 63 The value `-Bshareable' works for some versions of GNU ld. 64 65MAJOR The major version number of the shared library. You should 66 not need to change this. 67MINOR The minor version number of the shared library. Some systems, 68 such as SVR4 and its descendents (e.g., Solaris, Unixware), 69 do not use minor version numbers. For those systems, this 70 variable should be left unset. 71 72LD The linker. The value of `ld' is correct for SunOS 4.1.x. 73 You may need to change it to `gcc'; make sure to change 74 SHLIB_OPTS if you do so. 75 76Once you have edited Makefile.in, type `make Makefile' to rebuild the 77Makefile, then `make shared' to build the shared libraries. 78 79Documentation 80============= 81 82The documentation for the Readline and History libraries appears in the 83`doc' subdirectory. There are two texinfo files and a Unix-style manual 84page describing the programming facilities available in the Readline 85library. The texinfo files include both user and programmer's manuals. 86 87Reporting Bugs 88============== 89 90Bug reports for Readline should be sent to: 91 92 bug-readline@gnu.org 93 94When reporting a bug, please include the following information: 95 96 * the version number and release status of Readline (e.g., 2.2-release) 97 * the machine and OS that it is running on 98 * a list of the compilation flags or the contents of `config.h', if 99 appropriate 100 * a description of the bug 101 * a recipe for recreating the bug reliably 102 * a fix for the bug if you have one! 103 104If you would like to contact the Readline maintainer directly, send mail 105to bash-maintainers@gnu.org. 106 107Since Readline is developed along with bash, the bug-bash@gnu.org mailing 108list (mirrored to the Usenet newsgroup gnu.bash.bug) often contains 109Readline bug reports and fixes. 110 111Chet Ramey 112chet@po.cwru.edu 113