| 1 | Introduction |
| 2 | ============ |
| 3 | |
| 4 | This is the Gnu Readline library, version 5.1. |
| 5 | |
| 6 | The Readline library provides a set of functions for use by applications |
| 7 | that allow users to edit command lines as they are typed in. Both |
| 8 | Emacs and vi editing modes are available. The Readline library includes |
| 9 | additional functions to maintain a list of previously-entered command |
| 10 | lines, to recall and perhaps reedit those lines, and perform csh-like |
| 11 | history expansion on previous commands. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | The history facilites are also placed into a separate library, the |
| 14 | History library, as part of the build process. The History library |
| 15 | may be used without Readline in applications which desire its |
| 16 | capabilities. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | The Readline library is free software, distributed under the terms of |
| 19 | the [GNU] General Public License, version 2. For more information, see |
| 20 | the file COPYING. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | To build the library, try typing `./configure', then `make'. The |
| 23 | configuration process is automated, so no further intervention should |
| 24 | be necessary. Readline builds with `gcc' by default if it is |
| 25 | available. If you want to use `cc' instead, type |
| 26 | |
| 27 | CC=cc ./configure |
| 28 | |
| 29 | if you are using a Bourne-style shell. If you are not, the following |
| 30 | may work: |
| 31 | |
| 32 | env CC=cc ./configure |
| 33 | |
| 34 | Read the file INSTALL in this directory for more information about how |
| 35 | to customize and control the build process. |
| 36 | |
| 37 | The file rlconf.h contains C preprocessor defines that enable and disable |
| 38 | certain Readline features. |
| 39 | |
| 40 | The special make target `everything' will build the static and shared |
| 41 | libraries (if the target platform supports them) and the examples. |
| 42 | |
| 43 | Examples |
| 44 | ======== |
| 45 | |
| 46 | There are several example programs that use Readline features in the |
| 47 | examples directory. The `rl' program is of particular interest. It |
| 48 | is a command-line interface to Readline, suitable for use in shell |
| 49 | scripts in place of `read'. |
| 50 | |
| 51 | Shared Libraries |
| 52 | ================ |
| 53 | |
| 54 | There is skeletal support for building shared versions of the |
| 55 | Readline and History libraries. The configure script creates |
| 56 | a Makefile in the `shlib' subdirectory, and typing `make shared' |
| 57 | will cause shared versions of the Readline and History libraries |
| 58 | to be built on supported platforms. |
| 59 | |
| 60 | If `configure' is given the `--enable-shared' option, it will attempt |
| 61 | to build the shared libraries by default on supported platforms. |
| 62 | |
| 63 | Configure calls the script support/shobj-conf to test whether or |
| 64 | not shared library creation is supported and to generate the values |
| 65 | of variables that are substituted into shlib/Makefile. If you |
| 66 | try to build shared libraries on an unsupported platform, `make' |
| 67 | will display a message asking you to update support/shobj-conf for |
| 68 | your platform. |
| 69 | |
| 70 | If you need to update support/shobj-conf, you will need to create |
| 71 | a `stanza' for your operating system and compiler. The script uses |
| 72 | the value of host_os and ${CC} as determined by configure. For |
| 73 | instance, FreeBSD 4.2 with any version of gcc is identified as |
| 74 | `freebsd4.2-gcc*'. |
| 75 | |
| 76 | In the stanza for your operating system-compiler pair, you will need to |
| 77 | define several variables. They are: |
| 78 | |
| 79 | SHOBJ_CC The C compiler used to compile source files into shareable |
| 80 | object files. This is normally set to the value of ${CC} |
| 81 | by configure, and should not need to be changed. |
| 82 | |
| 83 | SHOBJ_CFLAGS Flags to pass to the C compiler ($SHOBJ_CC) to create |
| 84 | position-independent code. If you are using gcc, this |
| 85 | should probably be set to `-fpic'. |
| 86 | |
| 87 | SHOBJ_LD The link editor to be used to create the shared library from |
| 88 | the object files created by $SHOBJ_CC. If you are using |
| 89 | gcc, a value of `gcc' will probably work. |
| 90 | |
| 91 | SHOBJ_LDFLAGS Flags to pass to SHOBJ_LD to enable shared object creation. |
| 92 | If you are using gcc, `-shared' may be all that is necessary. |
| 93 | These should be the flags needed for generic shared object |
| 94 | creation. |
| 95 | |
| 96 | SHLIB_XLDFLAGS Additional flags to pass to SHOBJ_LD for shared library |
| 97 | creation. Many systems use the -R option to the link |
| 98 | editor to embed a path within the library for run-time |
| 99 | library searches. A reasonable value for such systems would |
| 100 | be `-R$(libdir)'. |
| 101 | |
| 102 | SHLIB_LIBS Any additional libraries that shared libraries should be |
| 103 | linked against when they are created. |
| 104 | |
| 105 | SHLIB_LIBPREF The prefix to use when generating the filename of the shared |
| 106 | library. The default is `lib'; Cygwin uses `cyg'. |
| 107 | |
| 108 | SHLIB_LIBSUFF The suffix to add to `libreadline' and `libhistory' when |
| 109 | generating the filename of the shared library. Many systems |
| 110 | use `so'; HP-UX uses `sl'. |
| 111 | |
| 112 | SHLIB_LIBVERSION The string to append to the filename to indicate the version |
| 113 | of the shared library. It should begin with $(SHLIB_LIBSUFF), |
| 114 | and possibly include version information that allows the |
| 115 | run-time loader to load the version of the shared library |
| 116 | appropriate for a particular program. Systems using shared |
| 117 | libraries similar to SunOS 4.x use major and minor library |
| 118 | version numbers; for those systems a value of |
| 119 | `$(SHLIB_LIBSUFF).$(SHLIB_MAJOR)$(SHLIB_MINOR)' is appropriate. |
| 120 | Systems based on System V Release 4 don't use minor version |
| 121 | numbers; use `$(SHLIB_LIBSUFF).$(SHLIB_MAJOR)' on those systems. |
| 122 | Other Unix versions use different schemes. |
| 123 | |
| 124 | SHLIB_DLLVERSION The version number for shared libraries that determines API |
| 125 | compatibility between readline versions and the underlying |
| 126 | system. Used only on Cygwin. Defaults to $SHLIB_MAJOR, but |
| 127 | can be overridden at configuration time by defining DLLVERSION |
| 128 | in the environment. |
| 129 | |
| 130 | SHLIB_DOT The character used to separate the name of the shared library |
| 131 | from the suffix and version information. The default is `.'; |
| 132 | systems like Cygwin which don't separate version information |
| 133 | from the library name should set this to the empty string. |
| 134 | |
| 135 | SHLIB_STATUS Set this to `supported' when you have defined the other |
| 136 | necessary variables. Make uses this to determine whether |
| 137 | or not shared library creation should be attempted. |
| 138 | |
| 139 | You should look at the existing stanzas in support/shobj-conf for ideas. |
| 140 | |
| 141 | Once you have updated support/shobj-conf, re-run configure and type |
| 142 | `make shared'. The shared libraries will be created in the shlib |
| 143 | subdirectory. |
| 144 | |
| 145 | If shared libraries are created, `make install' will install them. |
| 146 | You may install only the shared libraries by running `make |
| 147 | install-shared' from the top-level build directory. Running `make |
| 148 | install' in the shlib subdirectory will also work. If you don't want |
| 149 | to install any created shared libraries, run `make install-static'. |
| 150 | |
| 151 | Documentation |
| 152 | ============= |
| 153 | |
| 154 | The documentation for the Readline and History libraries appears in |
| 155 | the `doc' subdirectory. There are three texinfo files and a |
| 156 | Unix-style manual page describing the facilities available in the |
| 157 | Readline library. The texinfo files include both user and |
| 158 | programmer's manuals. HTML versions of the manuals appear in the |
| 159 | `doc' subdirectory as well. |
| 160 | |
| 161 | Reporting Bugs |
| 162 | ============== |
| 163 | |
| 164 | Bug reports for Readline should be sent to: |
| 165 | |
| 166 | bug-readline@gnu.org |
| 167 | |
| 168 | When reporting a bug, please include the following information: |
| 169 | |
| 170 | * the version number and release status of Readline (e.g., 4.2-release) |
| 171 | * the machine and OS that it is running on |
| 172 | * a list of the compilation flags or the contents of `config.h', if |
| 173 | appropriate |
| 174 | * a description of the bug |
| 175 | * a recipe for recreating the bug reliably |
| 176 | * a fix for the bug if you have one! |
| 177 | |
| 178 | If you would like to contact the Readline maintainer directly, send mail |
| 179 | to bash-maintainers@gnu.org. |
| 180 | |
| 181 | Since Readline is developed along with bash, the bug-bash@gnu.org mailing |
| 182 | list (mirrored to the Usenet newsgroup gnu.bash.bug) often contains |
| 183 | Readline bug reports and fixes. |
| 184 | |
| 185 | Chet Ramey |
| 186 | chet@po.cwru.edu |