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) 1989-2009 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-ignore-case (Off)
190 If set to On, readline performs filename matching and completion
191 in a case-insensitive fashion.
192 completion-prefix-display-length (0)
193 The length in characters of the common prefix of a list of pos‐
194 sible completions that is displayed without modification. When
195 set to a value greater than zero, common prefixes longer than
196 this value are replaced with an ellipsis when displaying possi‐
197 ble completions.
198 completion-query-items (100)
199 This determines when the user is queried about viewing the num‐
200 ber of possible completions generated by the possible-comple‐
201 tions command. It may be set to any integer value greater than
202 or equal to zero. If the number of possible completions is
203 greater than or equal to the value of this variable, the user is
204 asked whether or not he wishes to view them; otherwise they are
205 simply listed on the terminal. A negative value causes readline
206 to never ask.
207 convert-meta (On)
208 If set to On, readline will convert characters with the eighth
209 bit set to an ASCII key sequence by stripping the eighth bit and
210 prefixing it with an escape character (in effect, using escape
211 as the meta prefix).
212 disable-completion (Off)
213 If set to On, readline will inhibit word completion. Completion
214 characters will be inserted into the line as if they had been
215 mapped to self-insert.
216 editing-mode (emacs)
217 Controls whether readline begins with a set of key bindings sim‐
218 ilar to emacs or vi. editing-mode can be set to either emacs or
219 vi.
220 echo-control-characters (On)
221 When set to On, on operating systems that indicate they support
222 it, readline echoes a character corresponding to a signal gener‐
223 ated from the keyboard.
224 enable-keypad (Off)
225 When set to On, readline will try to enable the application key‐
226 pad when it is called. Some systems need this to enable the
227 arrow keys.
228 enable-meta-key (On)
229 When set to On, readline will try to enable any meta modifier
230 key the terminal claims to support when it is called. On many
231 terminals, the meta key is used to send eight-bit characters.
232 expand-tilde (Off)
233 If set to on, tilde expansion is performed when readline
234 attempts word completion.
235 history-preserve-point (Off)
236 If set to on, the history code attempts to place point at the
237 same location on each history line retrieved with previous-his‐
238 tory or next-history.
239 history-size (0)
240 Set the maximum number of history entries saved in the history
241 list. If set to zero, the number of entries in the history list
242 is not limited.
243 horizontal-scroll-mode (Off)
244 When set to On, makes readline use a single line for display,
245 scrolling the input horizontally on a single screen line when it
246 becomes longer than the screen width rather than wrapping to a
247 new line.
248 input-meta (Off)
249 If set to On, readline will enable eight-bit input (that is, it
250 will not clear the eighth bit in the characters it reads),
251 regardless of what the terminal claims it can support. The name
252 meta-flag is a synonym for this variable.
253 isearch-terminators (``C-[ C-J'')
254 The string of characters that should terminate an incremental
255 search without subsequently executing the character as a com‐
256 mand. If this variable has not been given a value, the charac‐
257 ters ESC and C-J will terminate an incremental search.
258 keymap (emacs)
259 Set the current readline keymap. The set of legal keymap names
260 is emacs, emacs-standard, emacs-meta, emacs-ctlx, vi, vi-move,
261 vi-command, and vi-insert. vi is equivalent to vi-command;
262 emacs is equivalent to emacs-standard. The default value is
263 emacs. The value of editing-mode also affects the default
264 keymap.
265 mark-directories (On)
266 If set to On, completed directory names have a slash appended.
267 mark-modified-lines (Off)
268 If set to On, history lines that have been modified are dis‐
269 played with a preceding asterisk (*).
270 mark-symlinked-directories (Off)
271 If set to On, completed names which are symbolic links to direc‐
272 tories have a slash appended (subject to the value of
273 mark-directories).
274 match-hidden-files (On)
275 This variable, when set to On, causes readline to match files
276 whose names begin with a `.' (hidden files) when performing
277 filename completion, unless the leading `.' is supplied by the
278 user in the filename to be completed.
279 output-meta (Off)
280 If set to On, readline will display characters with the eighth
281 bit set directly rather than as a meta-prefixed escape sequence.
282 page-completions (On)
283 If set to On, readline uses an internal more-like pager to dis‐
284 play a screenful of possible completions at a time.
285 print-completions-horizontally (Off)
286 If set to On, readline will display completions with matches
287 sorted horizontally in alphabetical order, rather than down the
288 screen.
289 revert-all-at-newline (Off)
290 If set to on, readline will undo all changes to history lines
291 before returning when accept-line is executed. By default, his‐
292 tory lines may be modified and retain individual undo lists
293 across calls to readline.
294 show-all-if-ambiguous (Off)
295 This alters the default behavior of the completion functions.
296 If set to on, words which have more than one possible completion
297 cause the matches to be listed immediately instead of ringing
298 the bell.
299 show-all-if-unmodified (Off)
300 This alters the default behavior of the completion functions in
301 a fashion similar to show-all-if-ambiguous. If set to on, words
302 which have more than one possible completion without any possi‐
303 ble partial completion (the possible completions don't share a
304 common prefix) cause the matches to be listed immediately
305 instead of ringing the bell.
306 skip-completed-text (Off)
307 If set to On, this alters the default completion behavior when
308 inserting a single match into the line. It's only active when
309 performing completion in the middle of a word. If enabled,
310 readline does not insert characters from the completion that
311 match characters after point in the word being completed, so
312 portions of the word following the cursor are not duplicated.
313 visible-stats (Off)
314 If set to On, a character denoting a file's type as reported by
315 stat(2) is appended to the filename when listing possible com‐
316 pletions.
317 Conditional Constructs
319 Readline implements a facility similar in spirit to the conditional
320 compilation features of the C preprocessor which allows key bindings
321 and variable settings to be performed as the result of tests. There
322 are four parser directives used.
323 $if The $if construct allows bindings to be made based on the edit‐
325 ing mode, the terminal being used, or the application using
326 readline. The text of the test extends to the end of the line;
327 no characters are required to isolate it.
328 mode The mode= form of the $if directive is used to test
330 whether readline is in emacs or vi mode. This may be
331 used in conjunction with the set keymap command, for
332 instance, to set bindings in the emacs-standard and
333 emacs-ctlx keymaps only if readline is starting out in
334 emacs mode.
335 term The term= form may be used to include terminal-specific
337 key bindings, perhaps to bind the key sequences output by
338 the terminal's function keys. The word on the right side
339 of the = is tested against the full name of the terminal
340 and the portion of the terminal name before the first -.
341 This allows sun to match both sun and sun-cmd, for
342 instance.
343 application
345 The application construct is used to include application-
346 specific settings. Each program using the readline
347 library sets the application name, and an initialization
348 file can test for a particular value. This could be used
349 to bind key sequences to functions useful for a specific
350 program. For instance, the following command adds a key
351 sequence that quotes the current or previous word in
352 Bash:
353 $if Bash
355 # Quote the current or previous word
356 "\C-xq": "\eb\"\ef\""
357 $endif
358 $endif This command, as seen in the previous example, terminates an $if
360 command.
361 $else Commands in this branch of the $if directive are executed if the
363 test fails.
364 $include
366 This directive takes a single filename as an argument and reads
367 commands and bindings from that file. For example, the follow‐
368 ing directive would read /etc/inputrc:
369 $include /etc/inputrc
371
373 Readline provides commands for searching through the command history
374 for lines containing a specified string. There are two search modes:
375 incremental and non-incremental.
376 Incremental searches begin before the user has finished typing the
378 search string. As each character of the search string is typed, read‐
379 line displays the next entry from the history matching the string typed
380 so far. An incremental search requires only as many characters as
381 needed to find the desired history entry. To search backward in the
382 history for a particular string, type C-r. Typing C-s searches forward
383 through the history. The characters present in the value of the
384 isearch-terminators variable are used to terminate an incremental
385 search. If that variable has not been assigned a value the Escape and
386 C-J characters will terminate an incremental search. C-G will abort an
387 incremental search and restore the original line. When the search is
388 terminated, the history entry containing the search string becomes the
389 current line.
390 To find other matching entries in the history list, type C-s or C-r as
392 appropriate. This will search backward or forward in the history for
393 the next line matching the search string typed so far. Any other key
394 sequence bound to a readline command will terminate the search and exe‐
395 cute that command. For instance, a newline will terminate the search
396 and accept the line, thereby executing the command from the history
397 list. A movement command will terminate the search, make the last line
398 found the current line, and begin editing.
399 Non-incremental searches read the entire search string before starting
401 to search for matching history lines. The search string may be typed
402 by the user or be part of the contents of the current line.
403
405 The following is a list of the names of the commands and the default
406 key sequences to which they are bound. Command names without an accom‐
407 panying key sequence are unbound by default.
408 In the following descriptions, point refers to the current cursor posi‐
410 tion, and mark refers to a cursor position saved by the set-mark com‐
411 mand. The text between the point and mark is referred to as the
412 region.
413 Commands for Moving
415 beginning-of-line (C-a)
416 Move to the start of the current line.
417 end-of-line (C-e)
418 Move to the end of the line.
419 forward-char (C-f)
420 Move forward a character.
421 backward-char (C-b)
422 Move back a character.
423 forward-word (M-f)
424 Move forward to the end of the next word. Words are composed of
425 alphanumeric characters (letters and digits).
426 backward-word (M-b)
427 Move back to the start of the current or previous word. Words
428 are composed of alphanumeric characters (letters and digits).
429 clear-screen (C-l)
430 Clear the screen leaving the current line at the top of the
431 screen. With an argument, refresh the current line without
432 clearing the screen.
433 redraw-current-line
434 Refresh the current line.
435 Commands for Manipulating the History
437 accept-line (Newline, Return)
438 Accept the line regardless of where the cursor is. If this line
439 is non-empty, it may be added to the history list for future
440 recall with add_history(). If the line is a modified history
441 line, the history line is restored to its original state.
442 previous-history (C-p)
443 Fetch the previous command from the history list, moving back in
444 the list.
445 next-history (C-n)
446 Fetch the next command from the history list, moving forward in
447 the list.
448 beginning-of-history (M-<)
449 Move to the first line in the history.
450 end-of-history (M->)
451 Move to the end of the input history, i.e., the line currently
452 being entered.
453 reverse-search-history (C-r)
454 Search backward starting at the current line and moving `up'
455 through the history as necessary. This is an incremental
456 search.
457 forward-search-history (C-s)
458 Search forward starting at the current line and moving `down'
459 through the history as necessary. This is an incremental
460 search.
461 non-incremental-reverse-search-history (M-p)
462 Search backward through the history starting at the current line
463 using a non-incremental search for a string supplied by the
464 user.
465 non-incremental-forward-search-history (M-n)
466 Search forward through the history using a non-incremental
467 search for a string supplied by the user.
468 history-search-forward
469 Search forward through the history for the string of characters
470 between the start of the current line and the current cursor
471 position (the point). This is a non-incremental search.
472 history-search-backward
473 Search backward through the history for the string of characters
474 between the start of the current line and the point. This is a
475 non-incremental search.
476 yank-nth-arg (M-C-y)
477 Insert the first argument to the previous command (usually the
478 second word on the previous line) at point. With an argument n,
479 insert the nth word from the previous command (the words in the
480 previous command begin with word 0). A negative argument
481 inserts the nth word from the end of the previous command. Once
482 the argument n is computed, the argument is extracted as if the
483 "!n" history expansion had been specified.
484 yank-last-arg (M-., M-_)
485 Insert the last argument to the previous command (the last word
486 of the previous history entry). With an argument, behave
487 exactly like yank-nth-arg. Successive calls to yank-last-arg
488 move back through the history list, inserting the last argument
489 of each line in turn. The history expansion facilities are used
490 to extract the last argument, as if the "!$" history expansion
491 had been specified.
492 Commands for Changing Text
494 delete-char (C-d)
495 Delete the character at point. If point is at the beginning of
496 the line, there are no characters in the line, and the last
497 character typed was not bound to delete-char, then return EOF.
498 backward-delete-char (Rubout)
499 Delete the character behind the cursor. When given a numeric
500 argument, save the deleted text on the kill ring.
501 forward-backward-delete-char
502 Delete the character under the cursor, unless the cursor is at
503 the end of the line, in which case the character behind the cur‐
504 sor is deleted.
505 quoted-insert (C-q, C-v)
506 Add the next character that you type to the line verbatim. This
507 is how to insert characters like C-q, for example.
508 tab-insert (M-TAB)
509 Insert a tab character.
510 self-insert (a, b, A, 1, !, ...)
511 Insert the character typed.
512 transpose-chars (C-t)
513 Drag the character before point forward over the character at
514 point, moving point forward as well. If point is at the end of
515 the line, then this transposes the two characters before point.
516 Negative arguments have no effect.
517 transpose-words (M-t)
518 Drag the word before point past the word after point, moving
519 point over that word as well. If point is at the end of the
520 line, this transposes the last two words on the line.
521 upcase-word (M-u)
522 Uppercase the current (or following) word. With a negative
523 argument, uppercase the previous word, but do not move point.
524 downcase-word (M-l)
525 Lowercase the current (or following) word. With a negative
526 argument, lowercase the previous word, but do not move point.
527 capitalize-word (M-c)
528 Capitalize the current (or following) word. With a negative
529 argument, capitalize the previous word, but do not move point.
530 overwrite-mode
531 Toggle overwrite mode. With an explicit positive numeric argu‐
532 ment, switches to overwrite mode. With an explicit non-positive
533 numeric argument, switches to insert mode. This command affects
534 only emacs mode; vi mode does overwrite differently. Each call
535 to readline() starts in insert mode. In overwrite mode, charac‐
536 ters bound to self-insert replace the text at point rather than
537 pushing the text to the right. Characters bound to back‐
538 ward-delete-char replace the character before point with a
539 space. By default, this command is unbound.
540 Killing and Yanking
542 kill-line (C-k)
543 Kill the text from point to the end of the line.
544 backward-kill-line (C-x Rubout)
545 Kill backward to the beginning of the line.
546 unix-line-discard (C-u)
547 Kill backward from point to the beginning of the line. The
548 killed text is saved on the kill-ring.
549 kill-whole-line
550 Kill all characters on the current line, no matter where point
551 is.
552 kill-word (M-d)
553 Kill from point the end of the current word, or if between
554 words, to the end of the next word. Word boundaries are the
555 same as those used by forward-word.
556 backward-kill-word (M-Rubout)
557 Kill the word behind point. Word boundaries are the same as
558 those used by backward-word.
559 unix-word-rubout (C-w)
560 Kill the word behind point, using white space as a word bound‐
561 ary. The killed text is saved on the kill-ring.
562 unix-filename-rubout
563 Kill the word behind point, using white space and the slash
564 character as the word boundaries. The killed text is saved on
565 the kill-ring.
566 delete-horizontal-space (M-\)
567 Delete all spaces and tabs around point.
568 kill-region
569 Kill the text between the point and mark (saved cursor posi‐
570 tion). This text is referred to as the region.
571 copy-region-as-kill
572 Copy the text in the region to the kill buffer.
573 copy-backward-word
574 Copy the word before point to the kill buffer. The word bound‐
575 aries are the same as backward-word.
576 copy-forward-word
577 Copy the word following point to the kill buffer. The word
578 boundaries are the same as forward-word.
579 yank (C-y)
580 Yank the top of the kill ring into the buffer at point.
581 yank-pop (M-y)
582 Rotate the kill ring, and yank the new top. Only works follow‐
583 ing yank or yank-pop.
584 Numeric Arguments
586 digit-argument (M-0, M-1, ..., M--)
587 Add this digit to the argument already accumulating, or start a
588 new argument. M-- starts a negative argument.
589 universal-argument
590 This is another way to specify an argument. If this command is
591 followed by one or more digits, optionally with a leading minus
592 sign, those digits define the argument. If the command is fol‐
593 lowed by digits, executing universal-argument again ends the
594 numeric argument, but is otherwise ignored. As a special case,
595 if this command is immediately followed by a character that is
596 neither a digit or minus sign, the argument count for the next
597 command is multiplied by four. The argument count is initially
598 one, so executing this function the first time makes the argu‐
599 ment count four, a second time makes the argument count sixteen,
600 and so on.
601 Completing
603 complete (TAB)
604 Attempt to perform completion on the text before point. The
605 actual completion performed is application-specific. Bash, for
606 instance, attempts completion treating the text as a variable
607 (if the text begins with $), username (if the text begins with
608 ~), hostname (if the text begins with @), or command (including
609 aliases and functions) in turn. If none of these produces a
610 match, filename completion is attempted. Gdb, on the other
611 hand, allows completion of program functions and variables, and
612 only attempts filename completion under certain circumstances.
613 possible-completions (M-?)
614 List the possible completions of the text before point.
615 insert-completions (M-*)
616 Insert all completions of the text before point that would have
617 been generated by possible-completions.
618 menu-complete
619 Similar to complete, but replaces the word to be completed with
620 a single match from the list of possible completions. Repeated
621 execution of menu-complete steps through the list of possible
622 completions, inserting each match in turn. At the end of the
623 list of completions, the bell is rung (subject to the setting of
624 bell-style) and the original text is restored. An argument of n
625 moves n positions forward in the list of matches; a negative
626 argument may be used to move backward through the list. This
627 command is intended to be bound to TAB, but is unbound by
628 default.c
629 menu-complete-krd
630 Identicwal to menu-complete, but moves backward through the list
631 of possible completions, as if menu-complete had been given a
632 negative argument. This command is unbound by default.
633 delete-char-or-list
634 Deletes the character under the cursor if not at the beginning
635 or end of the line (like delete-char). If at the end of the
636 line, behaves identically to possible-completions.
637 Keyboard Macros
639 start-kbd-macro (C-x ()
640 Begin saving the characters typed into the current keyboard
641 macro.
642 end-kbd-macro (C-x ))
643 Stop saving the characters typed into the current keyboard macro
644 and store the definition.
645 call-last-kbd-macro (C-x e)
646 Re-execute the last keyboard macro defined, by making the char‐
647 acters in the macro appear as if typed at the keyboard.
648 Miscellaneous
650 re-read-init-file (C-x C-r)
651 Read in the contents of the inputrc file, and incorporate any
652 bindings or variable assignments found there.
653 abort (C-g)
654 Abort the current editing command and ring the terminal's bell
655 (subject to the setting of bell-style).
656 do-uppercase-version (M-a, M-b, M-x, ...)
657 If the metafied character x is lowercase, run the command that
658 is bound to the corresponding uppercase character.
659 prefix-meta (ESC)
660 Metafy the next character typed. ESC f is equivalent to Meta-f.
661 undo (C-_, C-x C-u)
662 Incremental undo, separately remembered for each line.
663 revert-line (M-r)
664 Undo all changes made to this line. This is like executing the
665 undo command enough times to return the line to its initial
666 state.
667 tilde-expand (M-&)
668 Perform tilde expansion on the current word.
669 set-mark (C-@, M-<space>)
670 Set the mark to the point. If a numeric argument is supplied,
671 the mark is set to that position.
672 exchange-point-and-mark (C-x C-x)
673 Swap the point with the mark. The current cursor position is
674 set to the saved position, and the old cursor position is saved
675 as the mark.
676 character-search (C-])
677 A character is read and point is moved to the next occurrence of
678 that character. A negative count searches for previous occur‐
679 rences.
680 character-search-backward (M-C-])
681 A character is read and point is moved to the previous occur‐
682 rence of that character. A negative count searches for subse‐
683 quent occurrences.
684 skip-csi-sequence ()
685 Read enough characters to consume a multi-key sequence such as
686 those defined for keys like Home and End. Such sequences begin
687 with a Control Sequence Indicator (CSI), usually ESC-[. If this
688 sequence is bound to "\[", keys producing such sequences will
689 have no effect unless explicitly bound to a readline command,
690 instead of inserting stray characters into the editing buffer.
691 This is unbound by default, but usually bound to ESC-[.
692 insert-comment (M-#)
693 Without a numeric argument, the value of the readline com‐
694 ment-begin variable is inserted at the beginning of the current
695 line. If a numeric argument is supplied, this command acts as a
696 toggle: if the characters at the beginning of the line do not
697 match the value of comment-begin, the value is inserted, other‐
698 wise the characters in comment-begin are deleted from the begin‐
699 ning of the line. In either case, the line is accepted as if a
700 newline had been typed. The default value of comment-begin
701 makes the current line a shell comment. If a numeric argument
702 causes the comment character to be removed, the line will be
703 executed by the shell.
704 dump-functions
705 Print all of the functions and their key bindings to the read‐
706 line output stream. If a numeric argument is supplied, the out‐
707 put is formatted in such a way that it can be made part of an
708 inputrc file.
709 dump-variables
710 Print all of the settable variables and their values to the
711 readline output stream. If a numeric argument is supplied, the
712 output is formatted in such a way that it can be made part of an
713 inputrc file.
714 dump-macros
715 Print all of the readline key sequences bound to macros and the
716 strings they output. If a numeric argument is supplied, the
717 output is formatted in such a way that it can be made part of an
718 inputrc file.
719 emacs-editing-mode (C-e)
720 When in vi command mode, this causes a switch to emacs editing
721 mode.
722 vi-editing-mode (M-C-j)
723 When in emacs editing mode, this causes a switch to vi editing
724 mode.
725
727 The following is a list of the default emacs and vi bindings. Charac‐
728 ters with the eighth bit set are written as M-<character>, and are
729 referred to as metafied characters. The printable ASCII characters not
730 mentioned in the list of emacs standard bindings are bound to the
731 self-insert function, which just inserts the given character into the
732 input line. In vi insertion mode, all characters not specifically men‐
733 tioned are bound to self-insert. Characters assigned to signal genera‐
734 tion by stty(1) or the terminal driver, such as C-Z or C-C, retain that
735 function. Upper and lower case metafied characters are bound to the
736 same function in the emacs mode meta keymap. The remaining characters
737 are unbound, which causes readline to ring the bell (subject to the
738 setting of the bell-style variable).
739 Emacs Mode
741 Emacs Standard bindings
742 "C-@" set-mark
744 "C-A" beginning-of-line
745 "C-B" backward-char
746 "C-D" delete-char
747 "C-E" end-of-line
748 "C-F" forward-char
749 "C-G" abort
750 "C-H" backward-delete-char
751 "C-I" complete
752 "C-J" accept-line
753 "C-K" kill-line
754 "C-L" clear-screen
755 "C-M" accept-line
756 "C-N" next-history
757 "C-P" previous-history
758 "C-Q" quoted-insert
759 "C-R" reverse-search-history
760 "C-S" forward-search-history
761 "C-T" transpose-chars
762 "C-U" unix-line-discard
763 "C-V" quoted-insert
764 "C-W" unix-word-rubout
765 "C-Y" yank
766 "C-]" character-search
767 "C-_" undo
768 " " to "/" self-insert
769 "0" to "9" self-insert
770 ":" to "~" self-insert
771 "C-?" backward-delete-char
772 Emacs Meta bindings
774 "M-C-G" abort
776 "M-C-H" backward-kill-word
777 "M-C-I" tab-insert
778 "M-C-J" vi-editing-mode
779 "M-C-M" vi-editing-mode
780 "M-C-R" revert-line
781 "M-C-Y" yank-nth-arg
782 "M-C-[" complete
783 "M-C-]" character-search-backward
784 "M-space" set-mark
785 "M-#" insert-comment
786 "M-&" tilde-expand
787 "M-*" insert-completions
788 "M--" digit-argument
789 "M-." yank-last-arg
790 "M-0" digit-argument
791 "M-1" digit-argument
792 "M-2" digit-argument
793 "M-3" digit-argument
794 "M-4" digit-argument
795 "M-5" digit-argument
796 "M-6" digit-argument
797 "M-7" digit-argument
798 "M-8" digit-argument
799 "M-9" digit-argument
800 "M-<" beginning-of-history
801 "M-=" possible-completions
802 "M->" end-of-history
803 "M-?" possible-completions
804 "M-B" backward-word
805 "M-C" capitalize-word
806 "M-D" kill-word
807 "M-F" forward-word
808 "M-L" downcase-word
809 "M-N" non-incremental-forward-search-history
810 "M-P" non-incremental-reverse-search-history
811 "M-R" revert-line
812 "M-T" transpose-words
813 "M-U" upcase-word
814 "M-Y" yank-pop
815 "M-\" delete-horizontal-space
816 "M-~" tilde-expand
817 "M-C-?" backward-kill-word
818 "M-_" yank-last-arg
819 Emacs Control-X bindings
821 "C-XC-G" abort
823 "C-XC-R" re-read-init-file
824 "C-XC-U" undo
825 "C-XC-X" exchange-point-and-mark
826 "C-X(" start-kbd-macro
827 "C-X)" end-kbd-macro
828 "C-XE" call-last-kbd-macro
829 "C-XC-?" backward-kill-line
830 VI Mode bindings
833 VI Insert Mode functions
834 "C-D" vi-eof-maybe
836 "C-H" backward-delete-char
837 "C-I" complete
838 "C-J" accept-line
839 "C-M" accept-line
840 "C-R" reverse-search-history
841 "C-S" forward-search-history
842 "C-T" transpose-chars
843 "C-U" unix-line-discard
844 "C-V" quoted-insert
845 "C-W" unix-word-rubout
846 "C-Y" yank
847 "C-[" vi-movement-mode
848 "C-_" undo
849 " " to "~" self-insert
850 "C-?" backward-delete-char
851 VI Command Mode functions
853 "C-D" vi-eof-maybe
855 "C-E" emacs-editing-mode
856 "C-G" abort
857 "C-H" backward-char
858 "C-J" accept-line
859 "C-K" kill-line
860 "C-L" clear-screen
861 "C-M" accept-line
862 "C-N" next-history
863 "C-P" previous-history
864 "C-Q" quoted-insert
865 "C-R" reverse-search-history
866 "C-S" forward-search-history
867 "C-T" transpose-chars
868 "C-U" unix-line-discard
869 "C-V" quoted-insert
870 "C-W" unix-word-rubout
871 "C-Y" yank
872 "C-_" vi-undo
873 " " forward-char
874 "#" insert-comment
875 "$" end-of-line
876 "%" vi-match
877 "&" vi-tilde-expand
878 "*" vi-complete
879 "+" next-history
880 "," vi-char-search
881 "-" previous-history
882 "." vi-redo
883 "/" vi-search
884 "0" beginning-of-line
885 "1" to "9" vi-arg-digit
886 ";" vi-char-search
887 "=" vi-complete
888 "?" vi-search
889 "A" vi-append-eol
890 "B" vi-prev-word
891 "C" vi-change-to
892 "D" vi-delete-to
893 "E" vi-end-word
894 "F" vi-char-search
895 "G" vi-fetch-history
896 "I" vi-insert-beg
897 "N" vi-search-again
898 "P" vi-put
899 "R" vi-replace
900 "S" vi-subst
901 "T" vi-char-search
902 "U" revert-line
903 "W" vi-next-word
904 "X" backward-delete-char
905 "Y" vi-yank-to
906 "\" vi-complete
907 "^" vi-first-print
908 "_" vi-yank-arg
909 "`" vi-goto-mark
910 "a" vi-append-mode
911 "b" vi-prev-word
912 "c" vi-change-to
913 "d" vi-delete-to
914 "e" vi-end-word
915 "f" vi-char-search
916 "h" backward-char
917 "i" vi-insertion-mode
918 "j" next-history
919 "k" prev-history
920 "l" forward-char
921 "m" vi-set-mark
922 "n" vi-search-again
923 "p" vi-put
924 "r" vi-change-char
925 "s" vi-subst
926 "t" vi-char-search
927 "u" vi-undo
928 "w" vi-next-word
929 "x" vi-delete
930 "y" vi-yank-to
931 "|" vi-column
932 "~" vi-change-case
933
935 The Gnu Readline Library, Brian Fox and Chet Ramey
936 The Gnu History Library, Brian Fox and Chet Ramey
937 bash(1)
938
940 ~/.inputrc
941 Individual readline initialization file
942
944 Brian Fox, Free Software Foundation
945 bfox@gnu.org
946 Chet Ramey, Case Western Reserve University
948 chet@ins.CWRU.Edu
949
951 If you find a bug in readline, you should report it. But first, you
952 should make sure that it really is a bug, and that it appears in the
953 latest version of the readline library that you have.
954 Once you have determined that a bug actually exists, mail a bug report
956 to bug-readline@gnu.org. If you have a fix, you are welcome to mail
957 that as well! Suggestions and `philosophical' bug reports may be
958 mailed to bug-readline@gnu.org or posted to the Usenet newsgroup
959 gnu.bash.bug.
960 Comments and bug reports concerning this manual page should be directed
962 to chet@ins.CWRU.Edu.
963
965 It's too big and too slow.
966GNU Readline 6.1 2009 October 9 READLINE(3)