1Introduction 2============ 3 4This is the Gnu Readline library, version 4.3. 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, version 2. For more information, see 20the file COPYING. 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 C preprocessor defines that enable and disable 38certain Readline features. 39 40The special make target `everything' will build the static and shared 41libraries (if the target platform supports them) and the examples. 42 43Examples 44======== 45 46There are several example programs that use Readline features in the 47examples directory. The `rl' program is of particular interest. It 48is a command-line interface to Readline, suitable for use in shell 49scripts in place of `read'. 50 51Shared Libraries 52================ 53 54There is skeletal support for building shared versions of the 55Readline and History libraries. The configure script creates 56a Makefile in the `shlib' subdirectory, and typing `make shared' 57will cause shared versions of the Readline and History libraries 58to be built on supported platforms. 59 60If `configure' is given the `--enable-shared' option, it will attempt 61to build the shared libraries by default on supported platforms. 62 63Configure calls the script support/shobj-conf to test whether or 64not shared library creation is supported and to generate the values 65of variables that are substituted into shlib/Makefile. If you 66try to build shared libraries on an unsupported platform, `make' 67will display a message asking you to update support/shobj-conf for 68your platform. 69 70If you need to update support/shobj-conf, you will need to create 71a `stanza' for your operating system and compiler. The script uses 72the value of host_os and ${CC} as determined by configure. For 73instance, FreeBSD 4.2 with any version of gcc is identified as 74`freebsd4.2-gcc*'. 75 76In the stanza for your operating system-compiler pair, you will need to 77define several variables. They are: 78 79SHOBJ_CC The C compiler used to compile source files into shareable 80 object files. This is normally set to the value of ${CC} 81 by configure, and should not need to be changed. 82 83SHOBJ_CFLAGS Flags to pass to the C compiler ($SHOBJ_CC) to create 84 position-independent code. If you are using gcc, this 85 should probably be set to `-fpic'. 86 87SHOBJ_LD The link editor to be used to create the shared library from 88 the object files created by $SHOBJ_CC. If you are using 89 gcc, a value of `gcc' will probably work. 90 91SHOBJ_LDFLAGS Flags to pass to SHOBJ_LD to enable shared object creation. 92 If you are using gcc, `-shared' may be all that is necessary. 93 These should be the flags needed for generic shared object 94 creation. 95 96SHLIB_XLDFLAGS Additional flags to pass to SHOBJ_LD for shared library 97 creation. Many systems use the -R option to the link 98 editor to embed a path within the library for run-time 99 library searches. A reasonable value for such systems would 100 be `-R$(libdir)'. 101 102SHLIB_LIBS Any additional libraries that shared libraries should be 103 linked against when they are created. 104 105SHLIB_LIBSUFF The suffix to add to `libreadline' and `libhistory' when 106 generating the filename of the shared library. Many systems 107 use `so'; HP-UX uses `sl'. 108 109SHLIB_LIBVERSION The string to append to the filename to indicate the version 110 of the shared library. It should begin with $(SHLIB_LIBSUFF), 111 and possibly include version information that allows the 112 run-time loader to load the version of the shared library 113 appropriate for a particular program. Systems using shared 114 libraries similar to SunOS 4.x use major and minor library 115 version numbers; for those systems a value of 116 `$(SHLIB_LIBSUFF).$(SHLIB_MAJOR)$(SHLIB_MINOR)' is appropriate. 117 Systems based on System V Release 4 don't use minor version 118 numbers; use `$(SHLIB_LIBSUFF).$(SHLIB_MAJOR)' on those systems. 119 Other Unix versions use different schemes. 120 121SHLIB_STATUS Set this to `supported' when you have defined the other 122 necessary variables. Make uses this to determine whether 123 or not shared library creation should be attempted. 124 125You should look at the existing stanzas in support/shobj-conf for ideas. 126 127Once you have updated support/shobj-conf, re-run configure and type 128`make shared'. The shared libraries will be created in the shlib 129subdirectory. 130 131If shared libraries are created, `make install' will install them. 132You may install only the shared libraries by running `make 133install-shared' from the top-level build directory. Running `make 134install' in the shlib subdirectory will also work. If you don't want 135to install any created shared libraries, run `make install-static'. 136 137Documentation 138============= 139 140The documentation for the Readline and History libraries appears in 141the `doc' subdirectory. There are three texinfo files and a 142Unix-style manual page describing the facilities available in the 143Readline library. The texinfo files include both user and 144programmer's manuals. HTML versions of the manuals appear in the 145`doc' subdirectory as well. 146 147Reporting Bugs 148============== 149 150Bug reports for Readline should be sent to: 151 152 bug-readline@gnu.org 153 154When reporting a bug, please include the following information: 155 156 * the version number and release status of Readline (e.g., 4.2-release) 157 * the machine and OS that it is running on 158 * a list of the compilation flags or the contents of `config.h', if 159 appropriate 160 * a description of the bug 161 * a recipe for recreating the bug reliably 162 * a fix for the bug if you have one! 163 164If you would like to contact the Readline maintainer directly, send mail 165to bash-maintainers@gnu.org. 166 167Since Readline is developed along with bash, the bug-bash@gnu.org mailing 168list (mirrored to the Usenet newsgroup gnu.bash.bug) often contains 169Readline bug reports and fixes. 170 171Chet Ramey 172chet@po.cwru.edu 173