1READLINE(3) Library Functions Manual READLINE(3)
2
6 readline - get a line from a user with editing
7
9 #include <stdio.h>
10 #include <readline/readline.h>
11 #include <readline/history.h>
12 char *
14 readline (const char *prompt);
15
17 Readline is Copyright (C) 1989-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
18
20 readline will read a line from the terminal and return it, using prompt
21 as a prompt. If prompt is NULL or the empty string, no prompt is
22 issued. The line returned is allocated with malloc(3); the caller must
23 free it when finished. The line returned has the final newline
24 removed, so only the text of the line remains.
25 readline offers editing capabilities while the user is entering the
27 line. By default, the line editing commands are similar to those of
28 emacs. A vi-style line editing interface is also available.
29 This manual page describes only the most basic use of readline. Much
31 more functionality is available; see The GNU Readline Library and The
32 GNU History Library for additional information.
33
35 readline returns the text of the line read. A blank line returns the
36 empty string. If EOF is encountered while reading a line, and the line
37 is empty, NULL is returned. If an EOF is read with a non-empty line,
38 it is treated as a newline.
39
41 An Emacs-style notation is used to denote keystrokes. Control keys are
42 denoted by C-key, e.g., C-n means Control-N. Similarly, meta keys are
43 denoted by M-key, so M-x means Meta-X. (On keyboards without a meta
44 key, M-x means ESC x, i.e., press the Escape key then the x key. This
45 makes ESC the meta prefix. The combination M-C-x means ESC-Control-x,
46 or press the Escape key then hold the Control key while pressing the x
47 key.)
48 Readline commands may be given numeric arguments, which normally act as
50 a repeat count. Sometimes, however, it is the sign of the argument
51 that is significant. Passing a negative argument to a command that
52 acts in the forward direction (e.g., kill-line) causes that command to
53 act in a backward direction. Commands whose behavior with arguments
54 deviates from this are noted.
55 When a command is described as killing text, the text deleted is saved
57 for possible future retrieval (yanking). The killed text is saved in a
58 kill ring. Consecutive kills cause the text to be accumulated into one
59 unit, which can be yanked all at once. Commands which do not kill text
60 separate the chunks of text on the kill ring.
61
63 Readline is customized by putting commands in an initialization file
64 (the inputrc file). The name of this file is taken from the value of
65 the INPUTRC environment variable. If that variable is unset, the
66 default is ~/.inputrc. If that file does not exist or cannot be read,
67 the ultimate default is /etc/inputrc. When a program which uses the
68 readline library starts up, the init file is read, and the key bindings
69 and variables are set. There are only a few basic constructs allowed
70 in the readline init file. Blank lines are ignored. Lines beginning
71 with a # are comments. Lines beginning with a $ indicate conditional
72 constructs. Other lines denote key bindings and variable settings.
73 Each program using this library may add its own commands and bindings.
74 For example, placing
76 M-Control-u: universal-argument
78 or
79 C-Meta-u: universal-argument
80 into the inputrc would make M-C-u execute the readline command univer‐
82 sal-argument.
83 The following symbolic character names are recognized while processing
85 key bindings: DEL, ESC, ESCAPE, LFD, NEWLINE, RET, RETURN, RUBOUT,
86 SPACE, SPC, and TAB.
87 In addition to command names, readline allows keys to be bound to a
89 string that is inserted when the key is pressed (a macro).
90 Key Bindings
92 The syntax for controlling key bindings in the inputrc file is simple.
93 All that is required is the name of the command or the text of a macro
94 and a key sequence to which it should be bound. The name may be speci‐
95 fied in one of two ways: as a symbolic key name, possibly with Meta- or
96 Control- prefixes, or as a key sequence. The name and key sequence are
97 separated by a colon. There can be no whitespace between the name and
98 the colon.
99 When using the form keyname:function-name or macro, keyname is the name
101 of a key spelled out in English. For example:
102 Control-u: universal-argument
104 Meta-Rubout: backward-kill-word
105 Control-o: "> output"
106 In the above example, C-u is bound to the function universal-argument,
108 M-DEL is bound to the function backward-kill-word, and C-o is bound to
109 run the macro expressed on the right hand side (that is, to insert the
110 text ``> output'' into the line).
111 In the second form, "keyseq":function-name or macro, keyseq differs
113 from keyname above in that strings denoting an entire key sequence may
114 be specified by placing the sequence within double quotes. Some GNU
115 Emacs style key escapes can be used, as in the following example, but
116 the symbolic character names are not recognized.
117 "\C-u": universal-argument
119 "\C-x\C-r": re-read-init-file
120 "\e[11~": "Function Key 1"
121 In this example, C-u is again bound to the function universal-argument.
123 C-x C-r is bound to the function re-read-init-file, and ESC [ 1 1 ~ is
124 bound to insert the text ``Function Key 1''.
125 The full set of GNU Emacs style escape sequences available when speci‐
127 fying key sequences is
128 \C- control prefix
129 \M- meta prefix
130 \e an escape character
131 \\ backslash
132 \" literal ", a double quote
133 \' literal ', a single quote
134 In addition to the GNU Emacs style escape sequences, a second set of
136 backslash escapes is available:
137 \a alert (bell)
138 \b backspace
139 \d delete
140 \f form feed
141 \n newline
142 \r carriage return
143 \t horizontal tab
144 \v vertical tab
145 \nnn the eight-bit character whose value is the octal value
146 nnn (one to three digits)
147 \xHH the eight-bit character whose value is the hexadecimal
148 value HH (one or two hex digits)
149 When entering the text of a macro, single or double quotes should be
151 used to indicate a macro definition. Unquoted text is assumed to be a
152 function name. In the macro body, the backslash escapes described
153 above are expanded. Backslash will quote any other character in the
154 macro text, including " and '.
155 Bash allows the current readline key bindings to be displayed or modi‐
157 fied with the bind builtin command. The editing mode may be switched
158 during interactive use by using the -o option to the set builtin com‐
159 mand. Other programs using this library provide similar mechanisms.
160 The inputrc file may be edited and re-read if a program does not pro‐
161 vide any other means to incorporate new bindings.
162 Variables
164 Readline has variables that can be used to further customize its behav‐
165 ior. A variable may be set in the inputrc file with a statement of the
166 form
167 set variable-name value
169 Except where noted, readline variables can take the values On or Off
171 (without regard to case). Unrecognized variable names are ignored.
172 When a variable value is read, empty or null values, "on" (case-insen‐
173 sitive), and "1" are equivalent to On. All other values are equivalent
174 to Off. The variables and their default values are:
175 bell-style (audible)
177 Controls what happens when readline wants to ring the terminal
178 bell. If set to none, readline never rings the bell. If set to
179 visible, readline uses a visible bell if one is available. If
180 set to audible, readline attempts to ring the terminal's bell.
181 bind-tty-special-chars (On)
182 If set to On, readline attempts to bind the control characters
183 treated specially by the kernel's terminal driver to their read‐
184 line equivalents.
185 comment-begin (``#'')
186 The string that is inserted in vi mode when the insert-comment
187 command is executed. This command is bound to M-# in emacs mode
188 and to # in vi command mode.
189 completion-display-width (-1)
190 The number of screen columns used to display possible matches
191 when performing completion. The value is ignored if it is less
192 than 0 or greater than the terminal screen width. A value of 0
193 will cause matches to be displayed one per line. The default
194 value is -1.
195 completion-ignore-case (Off)
196 If set to On, readline performs filename matching and completion
197 in a case-insensitive fashion.
198 completion-map-case (Off)
199 If set to On, and completion-ignore-case is enabled, readline
200 treats hyphens (-) and underscores (_) as equivalent when per‐
201 forming case-insensitive filename matching and completion.
202 completion-prefix-display-length (0)
203 The length in characters of the common prefix of a list of pos‐
204 sible completions that is displayed without modification. When
205 set to a value greater than zero, common prefixes longer than
206 this value are replaced with an ellipsis when displaying possi‐
207 ble completions.
208 completion-query-items (100)
209 This determines when the user is queried about viewing the num‐
210 ber of possible completions generated by the possible-comple‐
211 tions command. It may be set to any integer value greater than
212 or equal to zero. If the number of possible completions is
213 greater than or equal to the value of this variable, the user is
214 asked whether or not he wishes to view them; otherwise they are
215 simply listed on the terminal. A negative value causes readline
216 to never ask.
217 convert-meta (On)
218 If set to On, readline will convert characters with the eighth
219 bit set to an ASCII key sequence by stripping the eighth bit and
220 prefixing it with an escape character (in effect, using escape
221 as the meta prefix).
222 disable-completion (Off)
223 If set to On, readline will inhibit word completion. Completion
224 characters will be inserted into the line as if they had been
225 mapped to self-insert.
226 editing-mode (emacs)
227 Controls whether readline begins with a set of key bindings sim‐
228 ilar to Emacs or vi. editing-mode can be set to either emacs or
229 vi.
230 echo-control-characters (On)
231 When set to On, on operating systems that indicate they support
232 it, readline echoes a character corresponding to a signal gener‐
233 ated from the keyboard.
234 enable-keypad (Off)
235 When set to On, readline will try to enable the application key‐
236 pad when it is called. Some systems need this to enable the
237 arrow keys.
238 enable-meta-key (On)
239 When set to On, readline will try to enable any meta modifier
240 key the terminal claims to support when it is called. On many
241 terminals, the meta key is used to send eight-bit characters.
242 expand-tilde (Off)
243 If set to On, tilde expansion is performed when readline
244 attempts word completion.
245 history-preserve-point (Off)
246 If set to On, the history code attempts to place point at the
247 same location on each history line retrieved with previous-his‐
248 tory or next-history.
249 history-size (0)
250 Set the maximum number of history entries saved in the history
251 list. If set to zero, the number of entries in the history list
252 is not limited.
253 horizontal-scroll-mode (Off)
254 When set to On, makes readline use a single line for display,
255 scrolling the input horizontally on a single screen line when it
256 becomes longer than the screen width rather than wrapping to a
257 new line.
258 input-meta (Off)
259 If set to On, readline will enable eight-bit input (that is, it
260 will not clear the eighth bit in the characters it reads),
261 regardless of what the terminal claims it can support. The name
262 meta-flag is a synonym for this variable.
263 isearch-terminators (``C-[ C-J'')
264 The string of characters that should terminate an incremental
265 search without subsequently executing the character as a com‐
266 mand. If this variable has not been given a value, the charac‐
267 ters ESC and C-J will terminate an incremental search.
268 keymap (emacs)
269 Set the current readline keymap. The set of legal keymap names
270 is emacs, emacs-standard, emacs-meta, emacs-ctlx, vi, vi-move,
271 vi-command, and vi-insert. vi is equivalent to vi-command;
272 emacs is equivalent to emacs-standard. The default value is
273 emacs. The value of editing-mode also affects the default
274 keymap.
275 mark-directories (On)
276 If set to On, completed directory names have a slash appended.
277 mark-modified-lines (Off)
278 If set to On, history lines that have been modified are dis‐
279 played with a preceding asterisk (*).
280 mark-symlinked-directories (Off)
281 If set to On, completed names which are symbolic links to direc‐
282 tories have a slash appended (subject to the value of
283 mark-directories).
284 match-hidden-files (On)
285 This variable, when set to On, causes readline to match files
286 whose names begin with a `.' (hidden files) when performing
287 filename completion. If set to Off, the leading `.' must be
288 supplied by the user in the filename to be completed.
289 menu-complete-display-prefix (Off)
290 If set to On, menu completion displays the common prefix of the
291 list of possible completions (which may be empty) before cycling
292 through the list.
293 output-meta (Off)
294 If set to On, readline will display characters with the eighth
295 bit set directly rather than as a meta-prefixed escape sequence.
296 page-completions (On)
297 If set to On, readline uses an internal more-like pager to dis‐
298 play a screenful of possible completions at a time.
299 print-completions-horizontally (Off)
300 If set to On, readline will display completions with matches
301 sorted horizontally in alphabetical order, rather than down the
302 screen.
303 revert-all-at-newline (Off)
304 If set to On, readline will undo all changes to history lines
305 before returning when accept-line is executed. By default, his‐
306 tory lines may be modified and retain individual undo lists
307 across calls to readline.
308 show-all-if-ambiguous (Off)
309 This alters the default behavior of the completion functions.
310 If set to On, words which have more than one possible completion
311 cause the matches to be listed immediately instead of ringing
312 the bell.
313 show-all-if-unmodified (Off)
314 This alters the default behavior of the completion functions in
315 a fashion similar to show-all-if-ambiguous. If set to On, words
316 which have more than one possible completion without any possi‐
317 ble partial completion (the possible completions don't share a
318 common prefix) cause the matches to be listed immediately
319 instead of ringing the bell.
320 skip-completed-text (Off)
321 If set to On, this alters the default completion behavior when
322 inserting a single match into the line. It's only active when
323 performing completion in the middle of a word. If enabled,
324 readline does not insert characters from the completion that
325 match characters after point in the word being completed, so
326 portions of the word following the cursor are not duplicated.
327 visible-stats (Off)
328 If set to On, a character denoting a file's type as reported by
329 stat(2) is appended to the filename when listing possible com‐
330 pletions.
331 Conditional Constructs
333 Readline implements a facility similar in spirit to the conditional
334 compilation features of the C preprocessor which allows key bindings
335 and variable settings to be performed as the result of tests. There
336 are four parser directives used.
337 $if The $if construct allows bindings to be made based on the edit‐
339 ing mode, the terminal being used, or the application using
340 readline. The text of the test extends to the end of the line;
341 no characters are required to isolate it.
342 mode The mode= form of the $if directive is used to test
344 whether readline is in emacs or vi mode. This may be
345 used in conjunction with the set keymap command, for
346 instance, to set bindings in the emacs-standard and
347 emacs-ctlx keymaps only if readline is starting out in
348 emacs mode.
349 term The term= form may be used to include terminal-specific
351 key bindings, perhaps to bind the key sequences output by
352 the terminal's function keys. The word on the right side
353 of the = is tested against the full name of the terminal
354 and the portion of the terminal name before the first -.
355 This allows sun to match both sun and sun-cmd, for
356 instance.
357 application
359 The application construct is used to include application-
360 specific settings. Each program using the readline
361 library sets the application name, and an initialization
362 file can test for a particular value. This could be used
363 to bind key sequences to functions useful for a specific
364 program. For instance, the following command adds a key
365 sequence that quotes the current or previous word in
366 bash:
367 $if Bash
369 # Quote the current or previous word
370 "\C-xq": "\eb\"\ef\""
371 $endif
372 $endif This command, as seen in the previous example, terminates an $if
374 command.
375 $else Commands in this branch of the $if directive are executed if the
377 test fails.
378 $include
380 This directive takes a single filename as an argument and reads
381 commands and bindings from that file. For example, the follow‐
382 ing directive would read /etc/inputrc:
383 $include /etc/inputrc
385
387 Readline provides commands for searching through the command history
388 for lines containing a specified string. There are two search modes:
389 incremental and non-incremental.
390 Incremental searches begin before the user has finished typing the
392 search string. As each character of the search string is typed, read‐
393 line displays the next entry from the history matching the string typed
394 so far. An incremental search requires only as many characters as
395 needed to find the desired history entry. To search backward in the
396 history for a particular string, type C-r. Typing C-s searches forward
397 through the history. The characters present in the value of the
398 isearch-terminators variable are used to terminate an incremental
399 search. If that variable has not been assigned a value the Escape and
400 C-J characters will terminate an incremental search. C-G will abort an
401 incremental search and restore the original line. When the search is
402 terminated, the history entry containing the search string becomes the
403 current line.
404 To find other matching entries in the history list, type C-s or C-r as
406 appropriate. This will search backward or forward in the history for
407 the next line matching the search string typed so far. Any other key
408 sequence bound to a readline command will terminate the search and exe‐
409 cute that command. For instance, a newline will terminate the search
410 and accept the line, thereby executing the command from the history
411 list. A movement command will terminate the search, make the last line
412 found the current line, and begin editing.
413 Non-incremental searches read the entire search string before starting
415 to search for matching history lines. The search string may be typed
416 by the user or be part of the contents of the current line.
417
419 The following is a list of the names of the commands and the default
420 key sequences to which they are bound. Command names without an accom‐
421 panying key sequence are unbound by default.
422 In the following descriptions, point refers to the current cursor posi‐
424 tion, and mark refers to a cursor position saved by the set-mark com‐
425 mand. The text between the point and mark is referred to as the
426 region.
427 Commands for Moving
429 beginning-of-line (C-a)
430 Move to the start of the current line.
431 end-of-line (C-e)
432 Move to the end of the line.
433 forward-char (C-f)
434 Move forward a character.
435 backward-char (C-b)
436 Move back a character.
437 forward-word (M-f)
438 Move forward to the end of the next word. Words are composed of
439 alphanumeric characters (letters and digits).
440 backward-word (M-b)
441 Move back to the start of the current or previous word. Words
442 are composed of alphanumeric characters (letters and digits).
443 clear-screen (C-l)
444 Clear the screen leaving the current line at the top of the
445 screen. With an argument, refresh the current line without
446 clearing the screen.
447 redraw-current-line
448 Refresh the current line.
449 Commands for Manipulating the History
451 accept-line (Newline, Return)
452 Accept the line regardless of where the cursor is. If this line
453 is non-empty, it may be added to the history list for future
454 recall with add_history(). If the line is a modified history
455 line, the history line is restored to its original state.
456 previous-history (C-p)
457 Fetch the previous command from the history list, moving back in
458 the list.
459 next-history (C-n)
460 Fetch the next command from the history list, moving forward in
461 the list.
462 beginning-of-history (M-<)
463 Move to the first line in the history.
464 end-of-history (M->)
465 Move to the end of the input history, i.e., the line currently
466 being entered.
467 reverse-search-history (C-r)
468 Search backward starting at the current line and moving `up'
469 through the history as necessary. This is an incremental
470 search.
471 forward-search-history (C-s)
472 Search forward starting at the current line and moving `down'
473 through the history as necessary. This is an incremental
474 search.
475 non-incremental-reverse-search-history (M-p)
476 Search backward through the history starting at the current line
477 using a non-incremental search for a string supplied by the
478 user.
479 non-incremental-forward-search-history (M-n)
480 Search forward through the history using a non-incremental
481 search for a string supplied by the user.
482 history-search-forward
483 Search forward through the history for the string of characters
484 between the start of the current line and the current cursor
485 position (the point). This is a non-incremental search.
486 history-search-backward
487 Search backward through the history for the string of characters
488 between the start of the current line and the point. This is a
489 non-incremental search.
490 yank-nth-arg (M-C-y)
491 Insert the first argument to the previous command (usually the
492 second word on the previous line) at point. With an argument n,
493 insert the nth word from the previous command (the words in the
494 previous command begin with word 0). A negative argument
495 inserts the nth word from the end of the previous command. Once
496 the argument n is computed, the argument is extracted as if the
497 "!n" history expansion had been specified.
498 yank-last-arg (M-., M-_)
499 Insert the last argument to the previous command (the last word
500 of the previous history entry). With a numeric argument, behave
501 exactly like yank-nth-arg. Successive calls to yank-last-arg
502 move back through the history list, inserting the last word (or
503 the word specified by the argument to the first call) of each
504 line in turn. Any numeric argument supplied to these successive
505 calls determines the direction to move through the history. A
506 negative argument switches the direction through the history
507 (back or forward). The history expansion facilities are used to
508 extract the last argument, as if the "!$" history expansion had
509 been specified.
510 Commands for Changing Text
512 delete-char (C-d)
513 Delete the character at point. If point is at the beginning of
514 the line, there are no characters in the line, and the last
515 character typed was not bound to delete-char, then return EOF.
516 backward-delete-char (Rubout)
517 Delete the character behind the cursor. When given a numeric
518 argument, save the deleted text on the kill ring.
519 forward-backward-delete-char
520 Delete the character under the cursor, unless the cursor is at
521 the end of the line, in which case the character behind the cur‐
522 sor is deleted.
523 quoted-insert (C-q, C-v)
524 Add the next character that you type to the line verbatim. This
525 is how to insert characters like C-q, for example.
526 tab-insert (M-TAB)
527 Insert a tab character.
528 self-insert (a, b, A, 1, !, ...)
529 Insert the character typed.
530 transpose-chars (C-t)
531 Drag the character before point forward over the character at
532 point, moving point forward as well. If point is at the end of
533 the line, then this transposes the two characters before point.
534 Negative arguments have no effect.
535 transpose-words (M-t)
536 Drag the word before point past the word after point, moving
537 point over that word as well. If point is at the end of the
538 line, this transposes the last two words on the line.
539 upcase-word (M-u)
540 Uppercase the current (or following) word. With a negative
541 argument, uppercase the previous word, but do not move point.
542 downcase-word (M-l)
543 Lowercase the current (or following) word. With a negative
544 argument, lowercase the previous word, but do not move point.
545 capitalize-word (M-c)
546 Capitalize the current (or following) word. With a negative
547 argument, capitalize the previous word, but do not move point.
548 overwrite-mode
549 Toggle overwrite mode. With an explicit positive numeric argu‐
550 ment, switches to overwrite mode. With an explicit non-positive
551 numeric argument, switches to insert mode. This command affects
552 only emacs mode; vi mode does overwrite differently. Each call
553 to readline() starts in insert mode. In overwrite mode, charac‐
554 ters bound to self-insert replace the text at point rather than
555 pushing the text to the right. Characters bound to back‐
556 ward-delete-char replace the character before point with a
557 space. By default, this command is unbound.
558 Killing and Yanking
560 kill-line (C-k)
561 Kill the text from point to the end of the line.
562 backward-kill-line (C-x Rubout)
563 Kill backward to the beginning of the line.
564 unix-line-discard (C-u)
565 Kill backward from point to the beginning of the line. The
566 killed text is saved on the kill-ring.
567 kill-whole-line
568 Kill all characters on the current line, no matter where point
569 is.
570 kill-word (M-d)
571 Kill from point the end of the current word, or if between
572 words, to the end of the next word. Word boundaries are the
573 same as those used by forward-word.
574 backward-kill-word (M-Rubout)
575 Kill the word behind point. Word boundaries are the same as
576 those used by backward-word.
577 unix-word-rubout (C-w)
578 Kill the word behind point, using white space as a word bound‐
579 ary. The killed text is saved on the kill-ring.
580 unix-filename-rubout
581 Kill the word behind point, using white space and the slash
582 character as the word boundaries. The killed text is saved on
583 the kill-ring.
584 delete-horizontal-space (M-\)
585 Delete all spaces and tabs around point.
586 kill-region
587 Kill the text between the point and mark (saved cursor posi‐
588 tion). This text is referred to as the region.
589 copy-region-as-kill
590 Copy the text in the region to the kill buffer.
591 copy-backward-word
592 Copy the word before point to the kill buffer. The word bound‐
593 aries are the same as backward-word.
594 copy-forward-word
595 Copy the word following point to the kill buffer. The word
596 boundaries are the same as forward-word.
597 yank (C-y)
598 Yank the top of the kill ring into the buffer at point.
599 yank-pop (M-y)
600 Rotate the kill ring, and yank the new top. Only works follow‐
601 ing yank or yank-pop.
602 Numeric Arguments
604 digit-argument (M-0, M-1, ..., M--)
605 Add this digit to the argument already accumulating, or start a
606 new argument. M-- starts a negative argument.
607 universal-argument
608 This is another way to specify an argument. If this command is
609 followed by one or more digits, optionally with a leading minus
610 sign, those digits define the argument. If the command is fol‐
611 lowed by digits, executing universal-argument again ends the
612 numeric argument, but is otherwise ignored. As a special case,
613 if this command is immediately followed by a character that is
614 neither a digit or minus sign, the argument count for the next
615 command is multiplied by four. The argument count is initially
616 one, so executing this function the first time makes the argu‐
617 ment count four, a second time makes the argument count sixteen,
618 and so on.
619 Completing
621 complete (TAB)
622 Attempt to perform completion on the text before point. The
623 actual completion performed is application-specific. Bash, for
624 instance, attempts completion treating the text as a variable
625 (if the text begins with $), username (if the text begins with
626 ~), hostname (if the text begins with @), or command (including
627 aliases and functions) in turn. If none of these produces a
628 match, filename completion is attempted. Gdb, on the other
629 hand, allows completion of program functions and variables, and
630 only attempts filename completion under certain circumstances.
631 possible-completions (M-?)
632 List the possible completions of the text before point. When
633 displaying completions, readline sets the number of columns used
634 for display to the value of completion-display-width, the value
635 of the environment variable COLUMNS, or the screen width, in
636 that order.
637 insert-completions (M-*)
638 Insert all completions of the text before point that would have
639 been generated by possible-completions.
640 menu-complete
641 Similar to complete, but replaces the word to be completed with
642 a single match from the list of possible completions. Repeated
643 execution of menu-complete steps through the list of possible
644 completions, inserting each match in turn. At the end of the
645 list of completions, the bell is rung (subject to the setting of
646 bell-style) and the original text is restored. An argument of n
647 moves n positions forward in the list of matches; a negative
648 argument may be used to move backward through the list. This
649 command is intended to be bound to TAB, but is unbound by
650 default.
651 menu-complete-backward
652 Identical to menu-complete, but moves backward through the list
653 of possible completions, as if menu-complete had been given a
654 negative argument. This command is unbound by default.
655 delete-char-or-list
656 Deletes the character under the cursor if not at the beginning
657 or end of the line (like delete-char). If at the end of the
658 line, behaves identically to possible-completions.
659 Keyboard Macros
661 start-kbd-macro (C-x ()
662 Begin saving the characters typed into the current keyboard
663 macro.
664 end-kbd-macro (C-x ))
665 Stop saving the characters typed into the current keyboard macro
666 and store the definition.
667 call-last-kbd-macro (C-x e)
668 Re-execute the last keyboard macro defined, by making the char‐
669 acters in the macro appear as if typed at the keyboard.
670 Miscellaneous
672 re-read-init-file (C-x C-r)
673 Read in the contents of the inputrc file, and incorporate any
674 bindings or variable assignments found there.
675 abort (C-g)
676 Abort the current editing command and ring the terminal's bell
677 (subject to the setting of bell-style).
678 do-uppercase-version (M-a, M-b, M-x, ...)
679 If the metafied character x is lowercase, run the command that
680 is bound to the corresponding uppercase character.
681 prefix-meta (ESC)
682 Metafy the next character typed. ESC f is equivalent to Meta-f.
683 undo (C-_, C-x C-u)
684 Incremental undo, separately remembered for each line.
685 revert-line (M-r)
686 Undo all changes made to this line. This is like executing the
687 undo command enough times to return the line to its initial
688 state.
689 tilde-expand (M-&)
690 Perform tilde expansion on the current word.
691 set-mark (C-@, M-<space>)
692 Set the mark to the point. If a numeric argument is supplied,
693 the mark is set to that position.
694 exchange-point-and-mark (C-x C-x)
695 Swap the point with the mark. The current cursor position is
696 set to the saved position, and the old cursor position is saved
697 as the mark.
698 character-search (C-])
699 A character is read and point is moved to the next occurrence of
700 that character. A negative count searches for previous occur‐
701 rences.
702 character-search-backward (M-C-])
703 A character is read and point is moved to the previous occur‐
704 rence of that character. A negative count searches for subse‐
705 quent occurrences.
706 skip-csi-sequence
707 Read enough characters to consume a multi-key sequence such as
708 those defined for keys like Home and End. Such sequences begin
709 with a Control Sequence Indicator (CSI), usually ESC-[. If this
710 sequence is bound to "\[", keys producing such sequences will
711 have no effect unless explicitly bound to a readline command,
712 instead of inserting stray characters into the editing buffer.
713 This is unbound by default, but usually bound to ESC-[.
714 insert-comment (M-#)
715 Without a numeric argument, the value of the readline com‐
716 ment-begin variable is inserted at the beginning of the current
717 line. If a numeric argument is supplied, this command acts as a
718 toggle: if the characters at the beginning of the line do not
719 match the value of comment-begin, the value is inserted, other‐
720 wise the characters in comment-begin are deleted from the begin‐
721 ning of the line. In either case, the line is accepted as if a
722 newline had been typed. The default value of comment-begin
723 makes the current line a shell comment. If a numeric argument
724 causes the comment character to be removed, the line will be
725 executed by the shell.
726 dump-functions
727 Print all of the functions and their key bindings to the read‐
728 line output stream. If a numeric argument is supplied, the out‐
729 put is formatted in such a way that it can be made part of an
730 inputrc file.
731 dump-variables
732 Print all of the settable variables and their values to the
733 readline output stream. If a numeric argument is supplied, the
734 output is formatted in such a way that it can be made part of an
735 inputrc file.
736 dump-macros
737 Print all of the readline key sequences bound to macros and the
738 strings they output. If a numeric argument is supplied, the
739 output is formatted in such a way that it can be made part of an
740 inputrc file.
741 emacs-editing-mode (C-e)
742 When in vi command mode, this causes a switch to emacs editing
743 mode.
744 vi-editing-mode (M-C-j)
745 When in emacs editing mode, this causes a switch to vi editing
746 mode.
747
749 The following is a list of the default emacs and vi bindings. Charac‐
750 ters with the eighth bit set are written as M-<character>, and are
751 referred to as metafied characters. The printable ASCII characters not
752 mentioned in the list of emacs standard bindings are bound to the
753 self-insert function, which just inserts the given character into the
754 input line. In vi insertion mode, all characters not specifically men‐
755 tioned are bound to self-insert. Characters assigned to signal genera‐
756 tion by stty(1) or the terminal driver, such as C-Z or C-C, retain that
757 function. Upper and lower case metafied characters are bound to the
758 same function in the emacs mode meta keymap. The remaining characters
759 are unbound, which causes readline to ring the bell (subject to the
760 setting of the bell-style variable).
761 Emacs Mode
763 Emacs Standard bindings
764 "C-@" set-mark
766 "C-A" beginning-of-line
767 "C-B" backward-char
768 "C-D" delete-char
769 "C-E" end-of-line
770 "C-F" forward-char
771 "C-G" abort
772 "C-H" backward-delete-char
773 "C-I" complete
774 "C-J" accept-line
775 "C-K" kill-line
776 "C-L" clear-screen
777 "C-M" accept-line
778 "C-N" next-history
779 "C-P" previous-history
780 "C-Q" quoted-insert
781 "C-R" reverse-search-history
782 "C-S" forward-search-history
783 "C-T" transpose-chars
784 "C-U" unix-line-discard
785 "C-V" quoted-insert
786 "C-W" unix-word-rubout
787 "C-Y" yank
788 "C-]" character-search
789 "C-_" undo
790 " " to "/" self-insert
791 "0" to "9" self-insert
792 ":" to "~" self-insert
793 "C-?" backward-delete-char
794 Emacs Meta bindings
796 "M-C-G" abort
798 "M-C-H" backward-kill-word
799 "M-C-I" tab-insert
800 "M-C-J" vi-editing-mode
801 "M-C-M" vi-editing-mode
802 "M-C-R" revert-line
803 "M-C-Y" yank-nth-arg
804 "M-C-[" complete
805 "M-C-]" character-search-backward
806 "M-space" set-mark
807 "M-#" insert-comment
808 "M-&" tilde-expand
809 "M-*" insert-completions
810 "M--" digit-argument
811 "M-." yank-last-arg
812 "M-0" digit-argument
813 "M-1" digit-argument
814 "M-2" digit-argument
815 "M-3" digit-argument
816 "M-4" digit-argument
817 "M-5" digit-argument
818 "M-6" digit-argument
819 "M-7" digit-argument
820 "M-8" digit-argument
821 "M-9" digit-argument
822 "M-<" beginning-of-history
823 "M-=" possible-completions
824 "M->" end-of-history
825 "M-?" possible-completions
826 "M-B" backward-word
827 "M-C" capitalize-word
828 "M-D" kill-word
829 "M-F" forward-word
830 "M-L" downcase-word
831 "M-N" non-incremental-forward-search-history
832 "M-P" non-incremental-reverse-search-history
833 "M-R" revert-line
834 "M-T" transpose-words
835 "M-U" upcase-word
836 "M-Y" yank-pop
837 "M-\" delete-horizontal-space
838 "M-~" tilde-expand
839 "M-C-?" backward-kill-word
840 "M-_" yank-last-arg
841 Emacs Control-X bindings
843 "C-XC-G" abort
845 "C-XC-R" re-read-init-file
846 "C-XC-U" undo
847 "C-XC-X" exchange-point-and-mark
848 "C-X(" start-kbd-macro
849 "C-X)" end-kbd-macro
850 "C-XE" call-last-kbd-macro
851 "C-XC-?" backward-kill-line
852 VI Mode bindings
855 VI Insert Mode functions
856 "C-D" vi-eof-maybe
858 "C-H" backward-delete-char
859 "C-I" complete
860 "C-J" accept-line
861 "C-M" accept-line
862 "C-R" reverse-search-history
863 "C-S" forward-search-history
864 "C-T" transpose-chars
865 "C-U" unix-line-discard
866 "C-V" quoted-insert
867 "C-W" unix-word-rubout
868 "C-Y" yank
869 "C-[" vi-movement-mode
870 "C-_" undo
871 " " to "~" self-insert
872 "C-?" backward-delete-char
873 VI Command Mode functions
875 "C-D" vi-eof-maybe
877 "C-E" emacs-editing-mode
878 "C-G" abort
879 "C-H" backward-char
880 "C-J" accept-line
881 "C-K" kill-line
882 "C-L" clear-screen
883 "C-M" accept-line
884 "C-N" next-history
885 "C-P" previous-history
886 "C-Q" quoted-insert
887 "C-R" reverse-search-history
888 "C-S" forward-search-history
889 "C-T" transpose-chars
890 "C-U" unix-line-discard
891 "C-V" quoted-insert
892 "C-W" unix-word-rubout
893 "C-Y" yank
894 "C-_" vi-undo
895 " " forward-char
896 "#" insert-comment
897 "$" end-of-line
898 "%" vi-match
899 "&" vi-tilde-expand
900 "*" vi-complete
901 "+" next-history
902 "," vi-char-search
903 "-" previous-history
904 "." vi-redo
905 "/" vi-search
906 "0" beginning-of-line
907 "1" to "9" vi-arg-digit
908 ";" vi-char-search
909 "=" vi-complete
910 "?" vi-search
911 "A" vi-append-eol
912 "B" vi-prev-word
913 "C" vi-change-to
914 "D" vi-delete-to
915 "E" vi-end-word
916 "F" vi-char-search
917 "G" vi-fetch-history
918 "I" vi-insert-beg
919 "N" vi-search-again
920 "P" vi-put
921 "R" vi-replace
922 "S" vi-subst
923 "T" vi-char-search
924 "U" revert-line
925 "W" vi-next-word
926 "X" backward-delete-char
927 "Y" vi-yank-to
928 "\" vi-complete
929 "^" vi-first-print
930 "_" vi-yank-arg
931 "`" vi-goto-mark
932 "a" vi-append-mode
933 "b" vi-prev-word
934 "c" vi-change-to
935 "d" vi-delete-to
936 "e" vi-end-word
937 "f" vi-char-search
938 "h" backward-char
939 "i" vi-insertion-mode
940 "j" next-history
941 "k" prev-history
942 "l" forward-char
943 "m" vi-set-mark
944 "n" vi-search-again
945 "p" vi-put
946 "r" vi-change-char
947 "s" vi-subst
948 "t" vi-char-search
949 "u" vi-undo
950 "w" vi-next-word
951 "x" vi-delete
952 "y" vi-yank-to
953 "|" vi-column
954 "~" vi-change-case
955
957 The Gnu Readline Library, Brian Fox and Chet Ramey
958 The Gnu History Library, Brian Fox and Chet Ramey
959 bash(1)
960
962 ~/.inputrc
963 Individual readline initialization file
964
966 Brian Fox, Free Software Foundation
967 bfox@gnu.org
968 Chet Ramey, Case Western Reserve University
970 chet@ins.CWRU.Edu
971
973 If you find a bug in readline, you should report it. But first, you
974 should make sure that it really is a bug, and that it appears in the
975 latest version of the readline library that you have.
976 Once you have determined that a bug actually exists, mail a bug report
978 to bug-readline@gnu.org. If you have a fix, you are welcome to mail
979 that as well! Suggestions and `philosophical' bug reports may be
980 mailed to bug-readline@gnu.org or posted to the Usenet newsgroup
981 gnu.bash.bug.
982 Comments and bug reports concerning this manual page should be directed
984 to chet@ins.CWRU.Edu.
985
987 It's too big and too slow.
988GNU Readline 6.2 2010 August 28 READLINE(3)