This is Info file rluserman.info, produced by Makeinfo version 1.68
from the input file rluserman.texinfo.

   This document describes the end user interface of the GNU Readline
Library, a utility which aids in the consistency of user interface
across discrete programs that need to provide a command line interface.

   Copyright (C) 1988, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

   Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice pare
preserved on all copies.

   Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of
this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that
the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
permission notice identical to this one.

   Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified
versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a
translation approved by the Foundation.


File: rluserman.info,  Node: Top,  Next: Command Line Editing,  Up: (dir)

GNU Readline Library
********************

   This document describes the end user interface of the GNU Readline
Library, a utility which aids in the consistency of user interface
across discrete programs that need to provide a command line interface.

* Menu:

* Command Line Editing::	   GNU Readline User's Manual.
* Programming with GNU Readline::  GNU Readline Programmer's Manual.


File: rluserman.info,  Node: Command Line Editing,  Next: Programming with GNU Readline,  Prev: Top,  Up: Top

Command Line Editing
********************

   This text describes GNU's command line editing interface.

* Menu:

* Introduction and Notation::	Notation used in this text.
* Readline Interaction::	The minimum set of commands for editing a line.
* Readline Init File::		Customizing Readline from a user's view.


File: rluserman.info,  Node: Introduction and Notation,  Next: Readline Interaction,  Up: Command Line Editing

Introduction to Line Editing
============================

   The following paragraphs describe the notation we use to represent
keystrokes.

   The text <C-k> is read as `Control-K' and describes the character
produced when the Control key is depressed and the <k> key is struck.

   The text <M-k> is read as `Meta-K' and describes the character
produced when the meta key (if you have one) is depressed, and the <k>
key is struck.  If you do not have a meta key, the identical keystroke
can be generated by typing <ESC> first, and then typing <k>.  Either
process is known as "metafying" the <k> key.

   The text <M-C-k> is read as `Meta-Control-k' and describes the
character produced by "metafying" <C-k>.

   In addition, several keys have their own names.  Specifically,
<DEL>, <ESC>, <LFD>, <SPC>, <RET>, and <TAB> all stand for themselves
when seen in this text, or in an init file (*note Readline Init
File::., for more info).


File: rluserman.info,  Node: Readline Interaction,  Next: Readline Init File,  Prev: Introduction and Notation,  Up: Command Line Editing

Readline Interaction
====================

   Often during an interactive session you type in a long line of text,
only to notice that the first word on the line is misspelled.  The
Readline library gives you a set of commands for manipulating the text
as you type it in, allowing you to just fix your typo, and not forcing
you to retype the majority of the line.  Using these editing commands,
you move the cursor to the place that needs correction, and delete or
insert the text of the corrections.  Then, when you are satisfied with
the line, you simply press <RET>.  You do not have to be at the end of
the line to press <RET>; the entire line is accepted regardless of the
location of the cursor within the line.

* Menu:

* Readline Bare Essentials::	The least you need to know about Readline.
* Readline Movement Commands::	Moving about the input line.
* Readline Killing Commands::	How to delete text, and how to get it back!
* Readline Arguments::		Giving numeric arguments to commands.


File: rluserman.info,  Node: Readline Bare Essentials,  Next: Readline Movement Commands,  Up: Readline Interaction

Readline Bare Essentials
------------------------

   In order to enter characters into the line, simply type them.  The
typed character appears where the cursor was, and then the cursor moves
one space to the right.  If you mistype a character, you can use <DEL>
to back up, and delete the mistyped character.

   Sometimes you may miss typing a character that you wanted to type,
and not notice your error until you have typed several other
characters.  In that case, you can type <C-b> to move the cursor to the
left, and then correct your mistake.  Aftwerwards, you can move the
cursor to the right with <C-f>.

   When you add text in the middle of a line, you will notice that
characters to the right of the cursor get `pushed over' to make room
for the text that you have inserted.  Likewise, when you delete text
behind the cursor, characters to the right of the cursor get `pulled
back' to fill in the blank space created by the removal of the text.  A
list of the basic bare essentials for editing the text of an input line
follows.

<C-b>
     Move back one character.

<C-f>
     Move forward one character.

<DEL>
     Delete the character to the left of the cursor.

<C-d>
     Delete the character underneath the cursor.

Printing characters
     Insert itself into the line at the cursor.

<C-_>
     Undo the last thing that you did.  You can undo all the way back
     to an empty line.


File: rluserman.info,  Node: Readline Movement Commands,  Next: Readline Killing Commands,  Prev: Readline Bare Essentials,  Up: Readline Interaction

Readline Movement Commands
--------------------------

   The above table describes the most basic possible keystrokes that
you need in order to do editing of the input line.  For your
convenience, many other commands have been added in addition to <C-b>,
<C-f>, <C-d>, and <DEL>.  Here are some commands for moving more rapidly
about the line.

<C-a>
     Move to the start of the line.

<C-e>
     Move to the end of the line.

<M-f>
     Move forward a word.

<M-b>
     Move backward a word.

<C-l>
     Clear the screen, reprinting the current line at the top.

   Notice how <C-f> moves forward a character, while <M-f> moves
forward a word.  It is a loose convention that control keystrokes
operate on characters while meta keystrokes operate on words.


File: rluserman.info,  Node: Readline Killing Commands,  Next: Readline Arguments,  Prev: Readline Movement Commands,  Up: Readline Interaction

Readline Killing Commands
-------------------------

   "Killing" text means to delete the text from the line, but to save
it away for later use, usually by "yanking" it back into the line.  If
the description for a command says that it `kills' text, then you can
be sure that you can get the text back in a different (or the same)
place later.

   Here is the list of commands for killing text.

<C-k>
     Kill the text from the current cursor position to the end of the
     line.

<M-d>
     Kill from the cursor to the end of the current word, or if between
     words, to the end of the next word.

<M-DEL>
     Kill from the cursor to the start of the previous word, or if
     between words, to the start of the previous word.

<C-w>
     Kill from the cursor to the previous whitespace.  This is
     different than <M-DEL> because the word boundaries differ.

   And, here is how to "yank" the text back into the line.

<C-y>
     Yank the most recently killed text back into the buffer at the
     cursor.

<M-y>
     Rotate the kill-ring, and yank the new top.  You can only do this
     if the prior command is <C-y> or <M-y>.

   When you use a kill command, the text is saved in a "kill-ring".
Any number of consecutive kills save all of the killed text together, so
that when you yank it back, you get it in one clean sweep.  The kill
ring is not line specific; the text that you killed on a previously
typed line is available to be yanked back later, when you are typing
another line.


File: rluserman.info,  Node: Readline Arguments,  Prev: Readline Killing Commands,  Up: Readline Interaction

Readline Arguments
------------------

   You can pass numeric arguments to Readline commands.  Sometimes the
argument acts as a repeat count, other times it is the sign of the
argument that is significant.  If you pass a negative argument to a
command which normally acts in a forward direction, that command will
act in a backward direction.  For example, to kill text back to the
start of the line, you might type <M-> <C-k>.

   The general way to pass numeric arguments to a command is to type
meta digits before the command.  If the first `digit' you type is a
minus sign (<->), then the sign of the argument will be negative.  Once
you have typed one meta digit to get the argument started, you can type
the remainder of the digits, and then the command.  For example, to give
the <C-d> command an argument of 10, you could type <M-1 0 C-d>.


File: rluserman.info,  Node: Readline Init File,  Prev: Readline Interaction,  Up: Command Line Editing

Readline Init File
==================

   Although the Readline library comes with a set of GNU Emacs-like
keybindings, it is possible that you would like to use a different set
of keybindings.  You can customize programs that use Readline by putting
commands in an "init" file in your home directory.  The name of this
file is `~/.inputrc'.

   When a program which uses the Readline library starts up, the
`~/.inputrc' file is read, and the keybindings are set.

   In addition, the <C-x C-r> command re-reads this init file, thus
incorporating any changes that you might have made to it.

* Menu:

* Readline Init Syntax::	Syntax for the commands in `~/.inputrc'.
* Readline vi Mode::		Switching to `vi' mode in Readline.


File: rluserman.info,  Node: Readline Init Syntax,  Next: Readline vi Mode,  Up: Readline Init File

Readline Init Syntax
--------------------

   There are only four constructs allowed in the `~/.inputrc' file:

Variable Settings
     You can change the state of a few variables in Readline.  You do
     this by using the `set' command within the init file.  Here is how
     you would specify that you wish to use `vi' line editing commands:

          set editing-mode vi

     Right now, there are only a few variables which can be set; so few
     in fact, that we just iterate them here:

    `editing-mode'
          The `editing-mode' variable controls which editing mode you
          are using.  By default, GNU Readline starts up in Emacs
          editing mode, where the keystrokes are most similar to Emacs.
          This variable can either be set to `emacs' or `vi'.

    `horizontal-scroll-mode'
          This variable can either be set to `On' or `Off'.  Setting it
          to `On' means that the text of the lines that you edit will
          scroll horizontally on a single screen line when they are
          larger than the width of the screen, instead of wrapping onto
          a new screen line.  By default, this variable is set to `Off'.

    `mark-modified-lines'
          This variable when set to `On', says to display an asterisk
          (`*') at the starts of history lines which have been modified.
          This variable is off by default.

    `prefer-visible-bell'
          If this variable is set to `On' it means to use a visible
          bell if one is available, rather than simply ringing the
          terminal bell.  By default, the value is `Off'.

Key Bindings
     The syntax for controlling keybindings in the `~/.inputrc' file is
     simple.  First you have to know the name of the command that you
     want to change.  The following pages contain tables of the command
     name, the default keybinding, and a short description of what the
     command does.

     Once you know the name of the command, simply place the name of
     the key you wish to bind the command to, a colon, and then the
     name of the command on a line in the `~/.inputrc' file.  The name
     of the key can be expressed in different ways, depending on which
     is most comfortable for you.

    KEYNAME: FUNCTION-NAME or MACRO
          KEYNAME is the name of a key spelled out in English.  For
          example:
               Control-u: universal-argument
               Meta-Rubout: backward-kill-word
               Control-o: ">&output"

          In the above example, <C-u> is bound to the function
          `universal-argument', and <C-o> is bound to run the macro
          expressed on the right hand side (that is, to insert the text
          `>&output' into the line).

    "KEYSEQ": FUNCTION-NAME or MACRO
          KEYSEQ differs from KEYNAME above in that strings denoting an
          entire key sequence can be specified.  Simply place the key
          sequence in double quotes.  GNU Emacs style key escapes can
          be used, as in the following example:

               "\C-u": universal-argument
               "\C-x\C-r": re-read-init-file
               "\e[11~": "Function Key 1"

          In the above example, <C-u> is bound to the function
          `universal-argument' (just as it was in the first example),
          <C-x C-r> is bound to the function `re-read-init-file', and
          <ESC [ 1 1 ~> is bound to insert the text `Function Key 1'.

* Menu:

* Commands For Moving::		Moving about the line.
* Commands For History::	Getting at previous lines.
* Commands For Text::		Commands for changing text.
* Commands For Killing::	Commands for killing and yanking.
* Numeric Arguments::		Specifying numeric arguments, repeat counts.
* Commands For Completion::	Getting Readline to do the typing for you.
* Miscellaneous Commands::	Other miscillaneous commands.


File: rluserman.info,  Node: Commands For Moving,  Next: Commands For History,  Up: Readline Init Syntax

Commands For Moving
...................

`beginning-of-line (<C-a>)'
     Move to the start of the current line.

`end-of-line (<C-e>)'
     Move to the end of the line.

`forward-char (<C-f>)'
     Move forward a character.

`backward-char (<C-b>)'
     Move back a character.

`forward-word (<M-f>)'
     Move forward to the end of the next word.

`backward-word (<M-b>)'
     Move back to the start of this, or the previous, word.

`clear-screen (<C-l>)'
     Clear the screen leaving the current line at the top of the screen.


File: rluserman.info,  Node: Commands For History,  Next: Commands For Text,  Prev: Commands For Moving,  Up: Readline Init Syntax

Commands For Manipulating The History
.....................................

`accept-line (Newline, Return)'
     Accept the line regardless of where the cursor is.  If this line is
     non-empty, add it to the history list.  If this line was a history
     line, then restore the history line to its original state.

`previous-history (<C-p>)'
     Move `up' through the history list.

`next-history (<C-n>)'
     Move `down' through the history list.

`beginning-of-history (<M-<>)'
     Move to the first line in the history.

`end-of-history (<M->>)'
     Move to the end of the input history, i.e., the line you are
     entering.

`reverse-search-history (<C-r>)'
     Search backward starting at the current line and moving `up'
     through the history as necessary.  This is an incremental search.

`forward-search-history (<C-s>)'
     Search forward starting at the current line and moving `down'
     through the the history as necessary.


File: rluserman.info,  Node: Commands For Text,  Next: Commands For Killing,  Prev: Commands For History,  Up: Readline Init Syntax

Commands For Changing Text
..........................

`delete-char (<C-d>)'
     Delete the character under the cursor.  If the cursor is at the
     beginning of the line, and there are no characters in the line, and
     the last character typed was not <C-d>, then return EOF.

`backward-delete-char (Rubout)'
     Delete the character behind the cursor.  A numeric argument says
     to kill the characters instead of deleting them.

`quoted-insert (<C-q>, <C-v>)'
     Add the next character that you type to the line verbatim.  This is
     how to insert things like <C-q> for example.

`tab-insert (<M-TAB>)'
     Insert a tab character.

`self-insert (a, b, A, 1, !, ...)'
     Insert yourself.

`transpose-chars (<C-t>)'
     Drag the character before point forward over the character at
     point.  Point moves forward as well.  If point is at the end of
     the line, then transpose the two characters before point.
     Negative arguments don't work.

`transpose-words (<M-t>)'
     Drag the word behind the cursor past the word in front of the
     cursor moving the cursor over that word as well.

`upcase-word (<M-u>)'
     Uppercase all letters in the current (or following) word.  With a
     negative argument, do the previous word, but do not move point.

`downcase-word (<M-l>)'
     Lowercase all letters in the current (or following) word.  With a
     negative argument, do the previous word, but do not move point.

`capitalize-word (<M-c>)'
     Uppercase the first letter in the current (or following) word.
     With a negative argument, do the previous word, but do not move
     point.


File: rluserman.info,  Node: Commands For Killing,  Next: Numeric Arguments,  Prev: Commands For Text,  Up: Readline Init Syntax

Killing And Yanking
...................

`kill-line (<C-k>)'
     Kill the text from the current cursor position to the end of the
     line.

`backward-kill-line ()'
     Kill backward to the beginning of the line.  This is normally
     unbound.

`kill-word (<M-d>)'
     Kill from the cursor to the end of the current word, or if between
     words, to the end of the next word.

`backward-kill-word (<M-DEL>)'
     Kill the word behind the cursor.

`unix-line-discard (<C-u>)'
     Kill the whole line the way <C-u> used to in Unix line input.  The
     killed text is saved on the kill-ring.

`unix-word-rubout (<C-w>)'
     Kill the word the way <C-w> used to in Unix line input.  The
     killed text is saved on the kill-ring.  This is different than
     backward-kill-word because the word boundaries differ.

`yank (<C-y>)'
     Yank the top of the kill ring into the buffer at point.

`yank-pop (<M-y>)'
     Rotate the kill-ring, and yank the new top.  You can only do this
     if the prior command is yank or yank-pop.


File: rluserman.info,  Node: Numeric Arguments,  Next: Commands For Completion,  Prev: Commands For Killing,  Up: Readline Init Syntax

Specifying Numeric Arguments
............................

`digit-argument (<M-0>, <M-1>, ... <M-->)'
     Add this digit to the argument already accumulating, or start a new
     argument.  <M-> starts a negative argument.

`universal-argument ()'
     Do what <C-u> does in GNU Emacs.  By default, this is not bound.


File: rluserman.info,  Node: Commands For Completion,  Next: Miscellaneous Commands,  Prev: Numeric Arguments,  Up: Readline Init Syntax

Letting Readline Type For You
.............................

`complete (TAB)'
     Attempt to do completion on the text before point.  This is
     implementation defined.  Generally, if you are typing a filename
     argument, you can do filename completion; if you are typing a
     command, you can do command completion, if you are typing in a
     symbol to GDB, you can do symbol name completion, if you are
     typing in a variable to Bash, you can do variable name completion.

`possible-completions (M-?)'
     List the possible completions of the text before point.


File: rluserman.info,  Node: Miscellaneous Commands,  Prev: Commands For Completion,  Up: Readline Init Syntax

Some Miscellaneous Commands
...........................

`re-read-init-file (<C-x> <C-r>)'
     Read in the contents of your `~/.inputrc' file, and incorporate
     any bindings found there.

`abort (<C-g>)'
     Stop running the current editing command.

`prefix-meta (ESC)'
     Make the next character that you type be metafied.  This is for
     people without a meta key.  Typing <ESC f> is equivalent to typing
     <M-f>.

`undo (<C-_>)'
     Incremental undo, separately remembered for each line.

`revert-line (<M-r>)'
     Undo all changes made to this line.  This is like typing the `undo'
     command enough times to get back to the beginning.


File: rluserman.info,  Node: Readline vi Mode,  Prev: Readline Init Syntax,  Up: Readline Init File

Readline `vi' Mode
------------------

   While the Readline library does not have a full set of `vi' editing
functions, it does contain enough to allow simple editing of the line.

   In order to switch interactively between GNU Emacs and `vi' editing
modes, use the command <M-C-j> (toggle-editing-mode).

   When you enter a line in `vi' mode, you are already placed in
`insertion' mode, as if you had typed an `i'.  Pressing <ESC> switches
you into `edit' mode, where you can edit the text of the line with the
standard `vi' movement keys, move to previous history lines with `k',
and following lines with `j', and so forth.



Tag Table:
Node: Top1039
Node: Command Line Editing1504
Node: Introduction and Notation1928
Node: Readline Interaction2981
Node: Readline Bare Essentials4119
Node: Readline Movement Commands5644
Node: Readline Killing Commands6558
Node: Readline Arguments8208
Node: Readline Init File9170
Node: Readline Init Syntax10003
Node: Commands For Moving13953
Node: Commands For History14593
Node: Commands For Text15680
Node: Commands For Killing17434
Node: Numeric Arguments18601
Node: Commands For Completion19059
Node: Miscellaneous Commands19777
Node: Readline vi Mode20549

End Tag Table
