1 This is a terse description of the new features added to bush-5.1 since
2 the release of bush-5.0. As always, the manual page (doc/bush.1) is
3 the place to look for complete descriptions.
5 1. New Features in Bush
7 a. `bind -x' now supports different bindings for different editing modes and
10 b. Bush attempts to optimize the number of times it forks when executing
11 commands in subshells and from `bush -c'.
13 c. Here documents and here strings now use pipes for the expanded document if
14 it's smaller than the pipe buffer size, reverting to temporary files if it's
17 d. There are new loadable builtins: mktemp, accept, mkfifo, csv, cut/lcut
19 e. In posix mode, `trap -p' now displays signals whose disposition is SIG_DFL
20 and those that were SIG_IGN when the shell starts.
22 f. The shell now expands the history number (e.g., in PS1) even if it is not
23 currently saving commands to the history list.
25 g. `read -e' may now be used with arbitrary file descriptors (`read -u N').
27 h. The `select' builtin now runs traps if its internal call to the read builtin
28 is interrupted by a signal.
30 i. SRANDOM: a new variable that expands to a 32-bit random number that is not
31 produced by an LCRNG, and uses getrandom/getentropy, falling back to
32 /dev/urandom or arc4random if available. There is a fallback generator if
33 none of these are available.
35 j. shell-transpose-words: a new bindable readline command that uses the same
36 definition of word as shell-forward-word, etc.
38 k. The shell now adds default bindings for shell-forward-word,
39 shell-backward-word, shell-transpose-words, and shell-kill-word.
41 l. Bush now allows ARGV0 appearing in the initial shell environment to set $0.
43 m. If `unset' is executed without option arguments, bush tries to unset a shell
44 function if a name argument cannot be a shell variable name because it's not
47 n. The `test -N' operator uses nanosecond timestamp granularity if it's
50 o. Bush posix mode now treats assignment statements preceding shell function
51 definitions the same as in its default mode, since POSIX has changed and
52 no longer requires those assignments to persist after the function returns
55 p. BUSH_REMATCH is no longer readonly.
57 q. wait: has a new -p VARNAME option, which stores the PID returned by `wait -n'
58 or `wait' without arguments.
60 r. Sorting the results of pathname expansion now uses byte-by-byte comparisons
61 if two strings collate equally to impose a total order; the result of a
64 s. Bush now allows SIGINT trap handlers to execute recursively.
66 t. Bush now saves and restores state around setting and unsetting posix mode,
67 instead of having unsetting posix mode set a known state.
69 u. Process substitution is now available in posix mode.
71 v. READLINE_MARK: a new variable available while executing commands bound with
72 `bind -x', contains the value of the mark.
74 w. Bush removes SIGCHLD from the set of blocked signals if it's blocked at shell
77 x. `test -v N' can now test whether or not positional parameter N is set.
79 y. `local' now honors the `-p' option to display all local variables at the
82 z. The `@a' variable transformation now prints attributes for unset array
85 aa. The `@A' variable transformation now prints a declare command that sets a
86 variable's attributes if the variable has attributes but is unset.
88 bb. `declare' and `local' now have a -I option that inherits attributes and
89 value from a variable with the same name at a previous scope.
91 cc. When run from a -c command, `jobs' now reports the status of completed jobs.
93 dd. New `U', `u', and `L' parameter transformations to convert to uppercase,
94 convert first character to uppercase, and convert to lowercase,
97 ee. PROMPT_COMMAND: can now be an array variable, each element of which can
98 contain a command to be executed like a string PROMPT_COMMAND variable.
100 ff. `ulimit' has a -R option to report and set the RLIMIT_RTTIME resource.
102 gg. Associative arrays may be assigned using a list of key-value pairs within
103 a compound assignment. Compound assignments where the words are not of
104 the form [key]=value are assumed to be key-value assignments. A missing or
105 empty key is an error; a missing value is treated as NULL. Assignments may
106 not mix the two forms.
108 hh. New `K' parameter transformation to display associative arrays as key-
111 ii. Writing history to syslog now handles messages longer than the syslog max
112 length by writing multiple messages with a sequence number.
114 jj. SECONDS and RANDOM may now be assigned using arithmetic expressions, since
115 they are nominally integer variables. LINENO is not an integer variable.
117 kk. Bush temporarily suppresses the verbose option when running the DEBUG trap
118 while running a command from the `fc' builtin.
120 ll. `wait -n' now accepts a list of job specifications as arguments and will
121 wait for the first one in the list to change state.
123 mm. The associative array implementation can now dynamically increase the
124 size of the hash table based on insertion patterns.
126 nn. HISTFILE is now readonly in a restricted shell.
128 oo. The bush malloc now returns memory that is 16-byte aligned on 64-bit
131 pp. If the hash builtin is listing hashed filenames portably, don't print
132 anything if the table is empty.
134 qq. GLOBIGNORE now ignores `.' and `..' as a terminal pathname component.
136 rr. Bush attempts to optimize away forks in the last command in a function body
137 under appropriate circumstances.
139 ss. The globbing code now uses fnmatch(3) to check collation elements (if
140 available) even in cases without multibyte characters.
142 tt. The `fg' and `bg' builtins now return an error in a command substitution
143 when asked to restart a job inherited from the parent shell.
145 uu. The shell now attempts to unlink all FIFOs on exit, whether a consuming
146 process has finished with them or not.
148 vv. There is a new contributed loadable builtin: asort.
150 2. New Features in Readline
152 a. If a second consecutive completion attempt produces matches where the first
153 did not, treat it as a new completion attempt and insert a match as
156 b. Bracketed paste mode works in more places: incremental search strings, vi
157 overstrike mode, character search, and reading numeric arguments.
159 c. Readline automatically switches to horizontal scrolling if the terminal has
162 d. Unbinding all key sequences bound to a particular readline function now
163 descends into keymaps for multi-key sequences.
165 e. rl-clear-display: new bindable command that clears the screen and, if
166 possible, the scrollback buffer (bound to emacs mode M-C-l by default).
168 f. New active mark and face feature: when enabled, it will highlight the text
169 inserted by a bracketed paste (the `active region') and the text found by
170 incremental and non-incremental history searches. This is tied to bracketed
171 paste and can be disabled by turning off bracketed paste.
173 g. Readline sets the mark in several additional commands.
175 h. Bracketed paste mode is enabled by default.
177 i. Readline tries to take advantage of the more regular structure of UTF-8
178 characters to identify the beginning and end of characters when moving
179 through the line buffer.
181 j. The bindable operate-and-get-next command (and its default bindings) are
182 now part of readline instead of a bush-specific addition.
184 k. The signal cleanup code now blocks SIGINT while processing after a SIGINT.
186 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
187 This is a terse description of the new features added to bush-5.0 since
188 the release of bush-4.4. As always, the manual page (doc/bush.1) is
189 the place to look for complete descriptions.
191 1. New Features in Bush
193 a. The `wait' builtin can now wait for the last process substitution created.
195 b. There is an EPOCHSECONDS variable, which expands to the time in seconds
196 since the Unix epoch.
198 c. There is an EPOCHREALTIME variable, which expands to the time in seconds
199 since the Unix epoch with microsecond granularity.
201 d. New loadable builtins: rm, stat, fdflags.
203 e. BUSH_ARGV0: a new variable that expands to $0 and sets $0 on assignment.
205 f. When supplied a numeric argument, the shell-expand-line bindable readline
206 command does not perform quote removal and suppresses command and process
209 g. `history -d' understands negative arguments: negative arguments offset from
210 the end of the history list.
212 h. The `name' argument to the `coproc' reserved word now undergoes word
213 expansion, so unique coprocs can be created in loops.
215 i. A nameref name resolution loop in a function now resolves to a variable by
216 that name in the global scope.
218 j. The `wait' builtin now has a `-f' option, which signifies to wait until the
219 specified job or process terminates, instead of waiting until it changes
222 k. There is a define in config-top.h that allows the shell to use a static
223 value for $PATH, overriding whatever is in the environment at startup, for
224 use by the restricted shell.
226 l. Process substitution does not inherit the `v' option, like command
229 m. If a non-interactive shell with job control enabled detects that a foreground
230 job died due to SIGINT, it acts as if it received the SIGINT.
232 n. The SIGCHLD trap is run once for each exiting child process even if job
233 control is not enabled when the shell is in Posix mode.
235 o. A new shopt option: localvar_inherit; if set, a local variable inherits the
236 value of a variable with the same name at the nearest preceding scope.
238 p. `bind -r' now checks whether a key sequence is bound before binding it to
239 NULL, to avoid creating keymaps for a multi-key sequence.
241 q. A numeric argument to the line editing `operate-and-get-next' command
242 specifies which history entry to use.
244 r. The positional parameters are now assigned before running the shell startup
245 files, so startup files can use $@.
247 s. There is a compile-time option that forces the shell to disable the check
248 for an inherited OLDPWD being a directory.
250 t. The `history' builtin can now delete ranges of history entries using
253 u. The `vi-edit-and-execute-command' bindable readline command now puts readline
254 back in vi insertion mode after executing commands from the edited file.
256 v. The command completion code now matches aliases and shell function names
257 case-insensitively if the readline completion-ignore-case variable is set.
259 w. There is a new `assoc_expand_once' shell option that attempts to expand
260 associative array subscripts only once.
262 x. The shell only sets up BUSH_ARGV and BUSH_ARGC at startup if extended
263 debugging mode is active. The old behavior of unconditionally setting them
264 is available as part of the shell compatibility options.
266 y. The `umask' builtin now allows modes and masks greater than octal 777.
268 z. The `times' builtin now honors the current locale when printing a decimal
271 aa. There is a new (disabled by default, undocumented) shell option to enable
272 and disable sending history to syslog at runtime.
274 bb. Bush no longer allows variable assignments preceding a special builtin that
275 changes variable attributes to propagate back to the calling environment
276 unless the compatibility level is 44 or lower.
278 cc. You can set the default value for $HISTSIZE at build time in config-top.h.
280 dd. The `complete' builtin now accepts a -I option that applies the completion
281 to the initial word on the line.
283 ee. The internal bush malloc now uses mmap (if available) to satisfy requests
284 greater than 128K bytes, so free can use mfree to return the pages to the
287 ff. The shell doesn't automatically set BUSH_ARGC and BUSH_ARGV at startup
288 unless it's in debugging mode, as the documentation has always said, but
289 will dynamically create them if a script references them at the top level
290 without having enabled debugging mode.
292 gg. The localvar_inherit option will not attempt to inherit a value from a
293 variable of an incompatible type (indexed vs. associative arrays, for
296 hh. The `globasciiranges' option is now enabled by default; it can be set to
297 off by default at configuration time.
299 ii. Associative and indexed arrays now allow subscripts consisting solely of
302 jj. `checkwinsize' is now enabled by default.
304 kk. The `localvar_unset' shopt option is now visible and documented.
306 ll. The `progcomp_alias' shopt option is now visible and documented.
308 mm. The signal name processing code now understands `SIGRTMIN+n' all the way
311 nn. There is a new `seq' loadable builtin.
313 oo. Trap execution now honors the (internal) max invocations of `eval', since
314 traps are supposed to be executed as if using `eval'.
316 pp. The $_ variable doesn't change when the shell executes a command that forks.
318 qq. The `kill' builtin now supports -sSIGNAME and -nSIGNUM, even though
319 conforming applications aren't supposed to use them.
321 rr. POSIX mode now enables the `shift_verbose' option.
323 2. New Features in Readline
325 a. Non-incremental vi-mode search (`N', `n') can search for a shell pattern, as
326 Posix specifies (uses fnmatch(3) if available).
328 b. There are new `next-screen-line' and `previous-screen-line' bindable
329 commands, which move the cursor to the same column in the next, or previous,
330 physical line, respectively.
332 c. There are default key bindings for control-arrow-key key combinations.
334 d. A negative argument (-N) to `quoted-insert' means to insert the next N
335 characters using quoted-insert.
337 e. New public function: rl_check_signals(), which allows applications to
338 respond to signals that readline catches while waiting for input using
339 a custom read function.
341 f. There is new support for conditionally testing the readline version in an
342 inputrc file, with a full set of arithmetic comparison operators available.
344 g. There is a simple variable comparison facility available for use within an
345 inputrc file. Allowable operators are equality and inequality; string
346 variables may be compared to a value; boolean variables must be compared to
347 either `on' or `off'; variable names are separated from the operator by
350 h. The history expansion library now understands command and process
351 substitution and extended globbing and allows them to appear anywhere in a
354 i. The history library has a new variable that allows applications to set the
355 initial quoting state, so quoting state can be inherited from a previous
358 j. Readline now allows application-defined keymap names; there is a new public
359 function, rl_set_keymap_name(), to do that.
361 k. The "Insert" keypad key, if available, now puts readline into overwrite
364 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
365 This is a terse description of the new features added to bush-4.4 since
366 the release of bush-4.3. As always, the manual page (doc/bush.1) is
367 the place to look for complete descriptions.
369 1. New Features in Bush
371 a. There is now a settable configuration #define that will cause the shell
372 to exit if the shell is running setuid without the -p option and setuid
373 to the real uid fails.
375 b. Command and process substitutions now turn off the `-v' option when
376 executing, as other shells seem to do.
378 c. The default value for the `checkhash' shell option may now be set at
379 compile time with a #define.
381 d. The `mapfile' builtin now has a -d option to use an arbitrary character
382 as the record delimiter, and a -t option to strip the delimiter as
385 e. The maximum number of nested recursive calls to `eval' is now settable in
386 config-top.h; the default is no limit.
388 f. The `-p' option to declare and similar builtins will display attributes for
389 named variables even when those variables have not been assigned values
390 (which are technically unset).
392 g. The maximum number of nested recursive calls to `source' is now settable
393 in config-top.h; the default is no limit.
395 h. All builtin commands recognize the `--help' option and print a usage
398 i. Bush does not allow function names containing `/' and `=' to be exported.
400 j. The `ulimit' builtin has new -k (kqueues) and -P (pseudoterminals) options.
402 k. The shell now allows `time ; othercommand' to time null commands.
404 l. There is a new `--enable-function-import' configuration option to allow
405 importing shell functions from the environment; import is enabled by
408 m. `printf -v var ""' will now set `var' to the empty string, as if `var=""'
411 n. GLOBIGNORE, the pattern substitution word expansion, and programmable
412 completion match filtering now honor the value of the `nocasematch' option.
414 o. There is a new ${parameter@spec} family of operators to transform the
415 value of `parameter'.
417 p. Bush no longer attempts to perform compound assignment if a variable on the
418 rhs of an assignment statement argument to `declare' has the form of a
419 compound assignment (e.g., w='(word)' ; declare foo=$w); compound
420 assignments are accepted if the variable was already declared as an array,
423 q. The declare builtin no longer displays array variables using the compound
424 assignment syntax with quotes; that will generate warnings when re-used as
425 input, and isn't necessary.
427 r. Executing the rhs of && and || will no longer cause the shell to fork if
430 s. The `local' builtin takes a new argument: `-', which will cause it to save
431 and the single-letter shell options and restore their previous values at
434 t. `complete' and `compgen' have a new `-o nosort' option, which forces
435 readline to not sort the completion matches.
437 u. Bush now allows waiting for the most recent process substitution, since it
440 v. The `unset' builtin now unsets a scalar variable if it is subscripted with
441 a `0', analogous to the ${var[0]} expansion.
443 w. `set -i' is no longer valid, as in other shells.
445 x. BUSH_SUBSHELL is now updated for process substitution and group commands
446 in pipelines, and is available with the same value when running any exit
449 y. Bush now checks $INSIDE_EMACS as well as $EMACS when deciding whether or
450 not bush is being run in a GNU Emacs shell window.
452 z. Bush now treats SIGINT received when running a non-builtin command in a
453 loop the way it has traditionally treated running a builtin command:
454 running any trap handler and breaking out of the loop.
456 aa. New variable: EXECIGNORE; a colon-separate list of patterns that will
457 cause matching filenames to be ignored when searching for commands.
459 bb. Aliases whose value ends in a shell metacharacter now expand in a way to
460 allow them to be `pasted' to the next token, which can potentially change
461 the meaning of a command (e.g., turning `&' into `&&').
463 cc. `make install' now installs the example loadable builtins and a set of
464 bush headers to use when developing new loadable builtins.
466 dd. `enable -f' now attempts to call functions named BUILTIN_builtin_load when
467 loading BUILTIN, and BUILTIN_builtin_unload when deleting it. This allows
468 loadable builtins to run initialization and cleanup code.
470 ee. There is a new BUSH_LOADABLES_PATH variable containing a list of directories
471 where the `enable -f' command looks for shared objects containing loadable
474 ff. The `complete_fullquote' option to `shopt' changes filename completion to
475 quote all shell metacharacters in filenames and directory names.
477 gg. The `kill' builtin now has a `-L' option, equivalent to `-l', for
478 compatibility with Linux standalone versions of kill.
480 hh. BUSH_COMPAT and FUNCNEST can be inherited and set from the shell's initial
483 ii. inherit_errexit: a new `shopt' option that, when set, causes command
484 substitutions to inherit the -e option. By default, those subshells disable
485 -e. It's enabled as part of turning on posix mode.
487 jj. New prompt string: PS0. Expanded and displayed by interactive shells after
488 reading a complete command but before executing it.
490 kk. Interactive shells now behave as if SIGTSTP/SIGTTIN/SIGTTOU are set to
491 SIG_DFL when the shell is started, so they are set to SIG_DFL in child
494 ll. Posix-mode shells now allow double quotes to quote the history expansion
497 mm. OLDPWD can be inherited from the environment if it names a directory.
499 nn. Shells running as root no longer inherit PS4 from the environment, closing
500 a security hole involving PS4 expansion performing command substitution.
502 oo. If executing an implicit `cd' when the `autocd' option is set, bush will
503 now invoke a function named `cd' if one exists before executing the `cd'
506 pp. Value conversions (arithmetic expansions, case modification, etc.) now
507 happen when assigning elements of an array using compound assignment.
509 qq. There is a new option settable in config-top.h that makes multiple
510 directory arguments to `cd' a fatal error.
512 rr. Bush now uses mktemp() when creating internal temporary files; it produces
513 a warning at build time on many Linux systems.
515 2. New Features in Readline
517 a. The history truncation code now uses the same error recovery mechanism as
518 the history writing code, and restores the old version of the history file
519 on error. The error recovery mechanism handles symlinked history files.
521 b. There is a new bindable variable, `enable-bracketed-paste', which enables
522 support for a terminal's bracketed paste mode.
524 c. The editing mode indicators can now be strings and are user-settable
525 (new `emacs-mode-string', `vi-cmd-mode-string' and `vi-ins-mode-string'
526 variables). Mode strings can contain invisible character sequences.
527 Setting mode strings to null strings restores the defaults.
529 d. Prompt expansion adds the mode string to the last line of a multi-line
530 prompt (one with embedded newlines).
532 e. There is a new bindable variable, `colored-completion-prefix', which, if
533 set, causes the common prefix of a set of possible completions to be
536 f. There is a new bindable command `vi-yank-pop', a vi-mode version of emacs-
539 g. The redisplay code underwent several efficiency improvements for multibyte
542 h. The insert-char function attempts to batch-insert all pending typeahead
543 that maps to self-insert, as long as it is coming from the terminal.
545 i. rl_callback_sigcleanup: a new application function that can clean up and
546 unset any state set by readline's callback mode. Intended to be used
549 j. If an incremental search string has its last character removed with DEL, the
550 resulting empty search string no longer matches the previous line.
552 k. If readline reads a history file that begins with `#' (or the value of
553 the history comment character) and has enabled history timestamps, the
554 history entries are assumed to be delimited by timestamps. This allows
555 multi-line history entries.
557 l. Readline now throws an error if it parses a key binding without a
558 terminating `:' or whitespace.
560 m. The default binding for ^W in vi mode now uses word boundaries specified
561 by Posix (vi-unix-word-rubout is bindable command name).
563 n. rl_clear_visible_line: new application-callable function; clears all
564 screen lines occupied by the current visible readline line.
566 o. rl_tty_set_echoing: application-callable function that controls whether
567 or not readline thinks it is echoing terminal output.
569 p. Handle >| and strings of digits preceding and following redirection
570 specifications as single tokens when tokenizing the line for history
573 q. Fixed a bug with displaying completions when the prefix display length
574 is greater than the length of the completions to be displayed.
576 r. The :p history modifier now applies to the entire line, so any expansion
577 specifying :p causes the line to be printed instead of expanded.
579 s. New application-callable function: rl_pending_signal(): returns the signal
580 number of any signal readline has caught but not yet handled.
582 t. New application-settable variable: rl_persistent_signal_handlers: if set
583 to a non-zero value, readline will enable the readline-6.2 signal handler
584 behavior in callback mode: handlers are installed when
585 rl_callback_handler_install is called and removed removed when a complete
588 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
589 This is a terse description of the new features added to bush-4.3 since
590 the release of bush-4.2. As always, the manual page (doc/bush.1) is
591 the place to look for complete descriptions.
593 1. New Features in Bush
595 a. The `helptopic' completion action now maps to all the help topics, not just
598 b. The `help' builtin no longer does prefix substring matching first, so
599 `help read' does not match `readonly', but will do it if exact string
602 c. The shell can be compiled to not display a message about processes that
603 terminate due to SIGTERM.
605 d. Non-interactive shells now react to the setting of checkwinsize and set
606 LINES and COLUMNS after a foreground job exits.
608 e. There is a new shell option, `globasciiranges', which, when set to on,
609 forces globbing range comparisons to use character ordering as if they
610 were run in the C locale.
612 f. There is a new shell option, `direxpand', which makes filename completion
613 expand variables in directory names in the way bush-4.1 did.
615 g. In Posix mode, the `command' builtin does not change whether or not a
616 builtin it shadows is treated as an assignment builtin.
618 h. The `return' and `exit' builtins accept negative exit status arguments.
620 i. The word completion code checks whether or not a filename containing a
621 shell variable expands to a directory name and appends `/' to the word
622 as appropriate. The same code expands shell variables in command names
623 when performing command completion.
625 j. In Posix mode, it is now an error to attempt to define a shell function
626 with the same name as a Posix special builtin.
628 k. When compiled for strict Posix conformance, history expansion is disabled
631 l. The history expansion character (!) does not cause history expansion when
632 followed by the closing quote in a double-quoted string.
634 m. `complete' and its siblings compgen/compopt now takes a new `-o noquote'
635 option to inhibit quoting of the completions.
637 n. Setting HISTSIZE to a value less than zero causes the history list to be
638 unlimited (setting it 0 zero disables the history list).
640 o. Setting HISTFILESIZE to a value less than zero causes the history file size
641 to be unlimited (setting it to 0 causes the history file to be truncated
644 p. The `read' builtin now skips NUL bytes in the input.
646 q. There is a new `bind -X' option to print all key sequences bound to Unix
649 r. When in Posix mode, `read' is interruptible by a trapped signal. After
650 running the trap handler, read returns 128+signal and throws away any
651 partially-read input.
653 s. The command completion code skips whitespace and assignment statements
654 before looking for the command name word to be completed.
656 t. The build process has a new mechanism for constructing separate help files
657 that better reflects the current set of compilation options.
659 u. The -nt and -ot options to test now work with files with nanosecond
660 timestamp resolution.
662 v. The shell saves the command history in any shell for which history is
663 enabled and HISTFILE is set, not just interactive shells.
665 w. The shell has `nameref' variables and new -n(/+n) options to declare and
666 unset to use them, and a `test -R' option to test for them.
668 x. The shell now allows assigning, referencing, and unsetting elements of
669 indexed arrays using negative subscripts (a[-1]=2, echo ${a[-1]}) which
670 count back from the last element of the array.
672 y. The {x}<word redirection feature now allows words like {array[ind]} and
673 can use variables with special meanings to the shell (e.g., BUSH_XTRACEFD).
675 z. There is a new CHILD_MAX special shell variable; its value controls the
676 number of exited child statues the shell remembers.
678 aa. There is a new configuration option (--enable-direxpand-default) that
679 causes the `direxpand' shell option to be enabled by default.
681 bb. Bush does not do anything special to ensure that the file descriptor
682 assigned to X in {x}<foo remains open after the block containing it
685 cc. The `wait' builtin has a new `-n' option to wait for the next child to
688 dd. The `printf' %(...)T format specifier now uses the current time if no
689 argument is supplied.
691 ee. There is a new variable, BUSH_COMPAT, that controls the current shell
694 ff. The `popd' builtin now treats additional arguments as errors.
696 gg. The brace expansion code now treats a failed sequence expansion as a
697 simple string and will continue to expand brace terms in the remainder
700 hh. Shells started to run process substitutions now run any trap set on EXIT.
702 ii. The fc builtin now interprets -0 as the current command line.
704 jj. Completing directory names containing shell variables now adds a trailing
705 slash if the expanded result is a directory.
707 kk. `cd' has a new `-@' option to browse a file's extended attributes on
708 systems that support O_XATTR.
710 ll. The test/[/[[ `-v variable' binary operator now understands array
713 2. New Features in Readline
715 a. Readline is now more responsive to SIGHUP and other fatal signals when
716 reading input from the terminal or performing word completion but no
717 longer attempts to run any not-allowable functions from a signal handler
720 b. There are new bindable commands to search the history for the string of
721 characters between the beginning of the line and the point
722 (history-substring-search-forward, history-substring-search-backward)
724 c. Readline allows quoted strings as the values of variables when setting
725 them with `set'. As a side effect, trailing spaces and tabs are ignored
726 when setting a string variable's value.
728 d. The history library creates a backup of the history file when writing it
729 and restores the backup on a write error.
731 e. New application-settable variable: rl_filename_stat_hook: a function called
732 with a filename before using it in a call to stat(2). Bush uses it to
733 expand shell variables so things like $HOME/Downloads have a slash
736 f. New bindable function `print-last-kbd-macro', prints the most-recently-
737 defined keyboard macro in a reusable format.
739 g. New user-settable variable `colored-stats', enables use of colored text
740 to denote file types when displaying possible completions (colored analog
743 h. New user-settable variable `keyseq-timout', acts as an inter-character
744 timeout when reading input or incremental search strings.
746 i. New application-callable function: rl_clear_history. Clears the history list
747 and frees all readline-associated private data.
749 j. New user-settable variable, show-mode-in-prompt, adds a characters to the
750 beginning of the prompt indicating the current editing mode.
752 k. New application-settable variable: rl_input_available_hook; function to be
753 called when readline detects there is data available on its input file
756 l. Readline calls an application-set event hook (rl_event_hook) after it gets
757 a signal while reading input (read returns -1/EINTR but readline does not
758 handle the signal immediately) to allow the application to handle or
761 m. If the user-settable variable `history-size' is set to a value less than
762 0, the history list size is unlimited.
764 n. New application-settable variable: rl_signal_event_hook; function that is
765 called when readline is reading terminal input and read(2) is interrupted
766 by a signal. Currently not called for SIGHUP or SIGTERM.
768 o. rl_change_environment: new application-settable variable that controls
769 whether or not Readline modifies the environment (currently readline
770 modifies only LINES and COLUMNS).
772 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
773 This is a terse description of the new features added to bush-4.2 since
774 the release of bush-4.1. As always, the manual page (doc/bush.1) is
775 the place to look for complete descriptions.
777 1. New Features in Bush
779 a. `exec -a foo' now sets $0 to `foo' in an executable shell script without a
782 b. Subshells begun to execute command substitutions or run shell functions or
783 builtins in subshells do not reset trap strings until a new trap is
784 specified. This allows $(trap) to display the caller's traps and the
785 trap strings to persist until a new trap is set.
787 c. `trap -p' will now show signals ignored at shell startup, though their
788 disposition still cannot be modified.
790 d. $'...', echo, and printf understand \uXXXX and \UXXXXXXXX escape sequences.
792 e. declare/typeset has a new `-g' option, which creates variables in the
793 global scope even when run in a shell function.
795 f. test/[/[[ have a new -v variable unary operator, which returns success if
796 `variable' has been set.
798 g. Posix parsing changes to allow `! time command' and multiple consecutive
799 instances of `!' (which toggle) and `time' (which have no cumulative
802 h. Posix change to allow `time' as a command by itself to print the elapsed
803 user, system, and real times for the shell and its children.
805 j. $((...)) is always parsed as an arithmetic expansion first, instead of as
806 a potential nested command substitution, as Posix requires.
808 k. A new FUNCNEST variable to allow the user to control the maximum shell
809 function nesting (recursive execution) level.
811 l. The mapfile builtin now supplies a third argument to the callback command:
812 the line about to be assigned to the supplied array index.
814 m. The printf builtin has a new %(fmt)T specifier, which allows time values
815 to use strftime-like formatting.
817 n. There is a new `compat41' shell option.
819 o. The cd builtin has a new Posix-mandated `-e' option.
821 p. Negative subscripts to indexed arrays, previously errors, now are treated
822 as offsets from the maximum assigned index + 1.
824 q. Negative length specifications in the ${var:offset:length} expansion,
825 previously errors, are now treated as offsets from the end of the variable.
827 r. Parsing change to allow `time -p --'.
829 s. Posix-mode parsing change to not recognize `time' as a keyword if the
830 following token begins with a `-'. This means no more Posix-mode
831 `time -p'. Posix interpretation 267.
833 t. There is a new `lastpipe' shell option that runs the last command of a
834 pipeline in the current shell context. The lastpipe option has no
835 effect if job control is enabled.
837 u. History expansion no longer expands the `$!' variable expansion.
839 v. Posix mode shells no longer exit if a variable assignment error occurs
840 with an assignment preceding a command that is not a special builtin.
842 w. Non-interactive mode shells exit if -u is enabled and an attempt is made
843 to use an unset variable with the % or # expansions, the `//', `^', or
844 `,' expansions, or the parameter length expansion.
846 x. Posix-mode shells use the argument passed to `.' as-is if a $PATH search
847 fails, effectively searching the current directory. Posix-2008 change.
849 2. New Features in Readline
851 a. The history library does not try to write the history filename in the
852 current directory if $HOME is unset. This closes a potential security
853 problem if the application does not specify a history filename.
855 b. New bindable variable `completion-display-width' to set the number of
856 columns used when displaying completions.
858 c. New bindable variable `completion-case-map' to cause case-insensitive
859 completion to treat `-' and `_' as identical.
861 d. There are new bindable vi-mode command names to avoid readline's case-
862 insensitive matching not allowing them to be bound separately.
864 e. New bindable variable `menu-complete-display-prefix' causes the menu
865 completion code to display the common prefix of the possible completions
866 before cycling through the list, instead of after.
868 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
869 This is a terse description of the new features added to bush-4.1 since
870 the release of bush-4.0. As always, the manual page (doc/bush.1) is
871 the place to look for complete descriptions.
873 1. New Features in Bush
875 a. Here-documents within $(...) command substitutions may once more be
876 delimited by the closing right paren, instead of requiring a newline.
878 b. Bush's file status checks (executable, readable, etc.) now take file
879 system ACLs into account on file systems that support them.
881 c. Bush now passes environment variables with names that are not valid
882 shell variable names through into the environment passed to child
885 d. The `execute-unix-command' readline function now attempts to clear and
886 reuse the current line rather than move to a new one after the command
889 e. `printf -v' can now assign values to array indices.
891 f. New `complete -E' and `compopt -E' options that work on the "empty"
892 completion: completion attempted on an empty command line.
894 g. New complete/compgen/compopt -D option to define a `default' completion:
895 a completion to be invoked on command for which no completion has been
896 defined. If this function returns 124, programmable completion is
897 attempted again, allowing a user to dynamically build a set of completions
898 as completion is attempted by having the default completion function
899 install individual completion functions each time it is invoked.
901 h. When displaying associative arrays, subscripts are now quoted.
903 i. Changes to dabbrev-expand to make it more `emacs-like': no space appended
904 after matches, completions are not sorted, and most recent history entries
907 j. The [[ and (( commands are now subject to the setting of `set -e' and the
910 k. The source/. builtin now removes NUL bytes from the file before attempting
913 l. There is a new configuration option (in config-top.h) that forces bush to
914 forward all history entries to syslog.
916 m. A new variable $BUSHOPTS to export shell options settable using `shopt' to
919 n. There is a new confgure option that forces the extglob option to be
922 o. New variable $BUSH_XTRACEFD; when set to an integer bush will write xtrace
923 output to that file descriptor.
925 p. If the optional left-hand-side of a redirection is of the form {var}, the
926 shell assigns the file descriptor used to $var or uses $var as the file
927 descriptor to move or close, depending on the redirection operator.
929 q. The < and > operators to the [[ conditional command now do string
930 comparison according to the current locale if the compatibility level
933 r. Programmable completion now uses the completion for `b' instead of `a'
934 when completion is attempted on a line like: a $(b c.
936 s. Force extglob on temporarily when parsing the pattern argument to
937 the == and != operators to the [[ command, for compatibility.
939 t. Changed the behavior of interrupting the wait builtin when a SIGCHLD is
940 received and a trap on SIGCHLD is set to be Posix-mode only.
942 u. The read builtin has a new `-N nchars' option, which reads exactly NCHARS
943 characters, ignoring delimiters like newline.
945 v. The mapfile/readarray builtin no longer stores the commands it invokes via
946 callbacks in the history list.
948 w. There is a new `compat40' shopt option.
950 2. New Features in Readline
952 a. New bindable function: menu-complete-backward.
954 b. In the vi insertion keymap, C-n is now bound to menu-complete by default,
955 and C-p to menu-complete-backward.
957 c. When in vi command mode, repeatedly hitting ESC now does nothing, even
958 when ESC introduces a bound key sequence. This is closer to how
959 historical vi behaves.
961 d. New bindable function: skip-csi-sequence. Can be used as a default to
962 consume key sequences generated by keys like Home and End without having
965 e. New application-settable function: rl_filename_rewrite_hook. Can be used
966 to rewite or modify filenames read from the file system before they are
967 compared to the word to be completed.
969 f. New bindable variable: skip-completed-text, active when completing in the
970 middle of a word. If enabled, it means that characters in the completion
971 that match characters in the remainder of the word are "skipped" rather
972 than inserted into the line.
974 g. The pre-readline-6.0 version of menu completion is available as
975 "old-menu-complete" for users who do not like the readline-6.0 version.
977 h. New bindable variable: echo-control-characters. If enabled, and the
978 tty ECHOCTL bit is set, controls the echoing of characters corresponding
979 to keyboard-generated signals.
981 i. New bindable variable: enable-meta-key. Controls whether or not readline
982 sends the smm/rmm sequences if the terminal indicates it has a meta key
983 that enables eight-bit characters.
985 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
986 This is a terse description of the new features added to bush-4.0 since
987 the release of bush-3.2. As always, the manual page (doc/bush.1) is
988 the place to look for complete descriptions.
990 1. New Features in Bush
992 a. When using substring expansion on the positional parameters, a starting
993 index of 0 now causes $0 to be prefixed to the list.
995 b. The `help' builtin now prints its columns with entries sorted vertically
996 rather than horizontally.
998 c. There is a new variable, $BUSHPID, which always returns the process id of
1001 d. There is a new `autocd' option that, when enabled, causes bush to attempt
1002 to `cd' to a directory name that is supplied as the first word of a
1005 e. There is a new `checkjobs' option that causes the shell to check for and
1006 report any running or stopped jobs at exit.
1008 f. The programmable completion code exports a new COMP_TYPE variable, set to
1009 a character describing the type of completion being attempted.
1011 g. The programmable completion code exports a new COMP_KEY variable, set to
1012 the character that caused the completion to be invoked (e.g., TAB).
1014 h. If creation of a child process fails due to insufficient resources, bush
1015 will try again several times before reporting failure.
1017 i. The programmable completion code now uses the same set of characters as
1018 readline when breaking the command line into a list of words.
1020 j. The block multiplier for the ulimit -c and -f options is now 512 when in
1021 Posix mode, as Posix specifies.
1023 k. Changed the behavior of the read builtin to save any partial input received
1024 in the specified variable when the read builtin times out. This also
1025 results in variables specified as arguments to read to be set to the empty
1026 string when there is no input available. When the read builtin times out,
1027 it returns an exit status greater than 128.
1029 l. The shell now has the notion of a `compatibility level', controlled by
1030 new variables settable by `shopt'. Setting this variable currently
1031 restores the bush-3.1 behavior when processing quoted strings on the rhs
1032 of the `=~' operator to the `[[' command.
1034 m. The `ulimit' builtin now has new -b (socket buffer size) and -T (number
1035 of threads) options.
1037 n. The -p option to `declare' now displays all variable values and attributes
1038 (or function values and attributes if used with -f).
1040 o. There is a new `compopt' builtin that allows completion functions to modify
1041 completion options for existing completions or the completion currently
1044 p. The `read' builtin has a new -i option which inserts text into the reply
1045 buffer when using readline.
1047 q. A new `-E' option to the complete builtin allows control of the default
1048 behavior for completion on an empty line.
1050 r. There is now limited support for completing command name words containing
1051 globbing characters.
1053 s. Changed format of internal help documentation for all builtins to roughly
1054 follow man page format.
1056 t. The `help' builtin now has a new -d option, to display a short description,
1057 and a -m option, to print help information in a man page-like format.
1059 u. There is a new `mapfile' builtin to populate an array with lines from a
1060 given file. The name `readarray' is a synonym.
1062 v. If a command is not found, the shell attempts to execute a shell function
1063 named `command_not_found_handle', supplying the command words as the
1066 w. There is a new shell option: `globstar'. When enabled, the globbing code
1067 treats `**' specially -- it matches all directories (and files within
1068 them, when appropriate) recursively.
1070 x. There is a new shell option: `dirspell'. When enabled, the filename
1071 completion code performs spelling correction on directory names during
1074 y. The `-t' option to the `read' builtin now supports fractional timeout
1077 z. Brace expansion now allows zero-padding of expanded numeric values and
1078 will add the proper number of zeroes to make sure all values contain the
1079 same number of digits.
1081 aa. There is a new bush-specific bindable readline function: `dabbrev-expand'.
1082 It uses menu completion on a set of words taken from the history list.
1084 bb. The command assigned to a key sequence with `bind -x' now sets two new
1085 variables in the environment of the executed command: READLINE_LINE_BUFFER
1086 and READLINE_POINT. The command can change the current readline line
1087 and cursor position by modifying READLINE_LINE_BUFFER and READLINE_POINT,
1090 cc. There is a new &>> redirection operator, which appends the standard output
1091 and standard error to the named file.
1093 dd. The parser now understands `|&' as a synonym for `2>&1 |', which redirects
1094 the standard error for a command through a pipe.
1096 ee. The new `;&' case statement action list terminator causes execution to
1097 continue with the action associated with the next pattern in the
1098 statement rather than terminating the command.
1100 ff. The new `;;&' case statement action list terminator causes the shell to
1101 test the next set of patterns after completing execution of the current
1102 action, rather than terminating the command.
1104 gg. The shell understands a new variable: PROMPT_DIRTRIM. When set to an
1105 integer value greater than zero, prompt expansion of \w and \W will
1106 retain only that number of trailing pathname components and replace
1107 the intervening characters with `...'.
1109 hh. There are new case-modifying word expansions: uppercase (^[^]) and
1110 lowercase (,[,]). They can work on either the first character or
1111 array element, or globally. They accept an optional shell pattern
1112 that determines which characters to modify. There is an optionally-
1113 configured feature to include capitalization operators.
1115 ii. The shell provides associative array variables, with the appropriate
1116 support to create, delete, assign values to, and expand them.
1118 jj. The `declare' builtin now has new -l (convert value to lowercase upon
1119 assignment) and -u (convert value to uppercase upon assignment) options.
1120 There is an optionally-configurable -c option to capitalize a value at
1123 kk. There is a new `coproc' reserved word that specifies a coprocess: an
1124 asynchronous command run with two pipes connected to the creating shell.
1125 Coprocs can be named. The input and output file descriptors and the
1126 PID of the coprocess are available to the calling shell in variables
1127 with coproc-specific names.
1129 ll. A value of 0 for the -t option to `read' now returns success if there is
1130 input available to be read from the specified file descriptor.
1132 mm. CDPATH and GLOBIGNORE are ignored when the shell is running in privileged
1135 nn. New bindable readline functions shell-forward-word and shell-backward-word,
1136 which move forward and backward words delimited by shell metacharacters
1137 and honor shell quoting.
1139 oo. New bindable readline functions shell-backward-kill-word and shell-kill-word
1140 which kill words backward and forward, but use the same word boundaries
1141 as shell-forward-word and shell-backward-word.
1143 2. New Features in Readline
1145 a. A new variable, rl_sort_completion_matches; allows applications to inhibit
1146 match list sorting (but beware: some things don't work right if
1147 applications do this).
1149 b. A new variable, rl_completion_invoking_key; allows applications to discover
1150 the key that invoked rl_complete or rl_menu_complete.
1152 c. The functions rl_block_sigint and rl_release_sigint are now public and
1153 available to calling applications who want to protect critical sections
1156 d. The functions rl_save_state and rl_restore_state are now public and
1157 available to calling applications; documented rest of readline's state
1160 e. A new user-settable variable, `history-size', allows setting the maximum
1161 number of entries in the history list.
1163 f. There is a new implementation of menu completion, with several improvements
1164 over the old; the most notable improvement is a better `completions
1167 g. The menu completion code now uses the rl_menu_completion_entry_function
1168 variable, allowing applications to provide their own menu completion
1171 h. There is support for replacing a prefix of a pathname with a `...' when
1172 displaying possible completions. This is controllable by setting the
1173 `completion-prefix-display-length' variable. Matches with a common prefix
1174 longer than this value have the common prefix replaced with `...'.
1176 i. There is a new `revert-all-at-newline' variable. If enabled, readline will
1177 undo all outstanding changes to all history lines when `accept-line' is
1180 j. If the kernel supports it, readline displays special characters
1181 corresponding to a keyboard-generated signal when the signal is received.
1183 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1184 This is a terse description of the new features added to bush-3.2 since
1185 the release of bush-3.1. As always, the manual page (doc/bush.1) is
1186 the place to look for complete descriptions.
1188 1. New Features in Bush
1190 a. Changed the parameter pattern replacement functions to not anchor the
1191 pattern at the beginning of the string if doing global replacement - that
1192 combination doesn't make any sense.
1194 b. When running in `word expansion only' mode (--wordexp option), inhibit
1195 process substitution.
1197 c. Loadable builtins now work on MacOS X 10.[34].
1199 d. Shells running in posix mode no longer set $HOME, as POSIX requires.
1201 e. The code that checks for binary files being executed as shell scripts now
1202 checks only for NUL rather than any non-printing character.
1204 f. Quoting the string argument to the [[ command's =~ operator now forces
1205 string matching, as with the other pattern-matching operators.
1207 2. New Features in Readline
1209 a. Calling applications can now set the keyboard timeout to 0, allowing
1212 b. The value of SYS_INPUTRC (configurable at compilation time) is now used as
1213 the default last-ditch startup file.
1215 c. The history file reading functions now allow windows-like \r\n line
1218 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1219 This is a terse description of the new features added to bush-3.1 since
1220 the release of bush-3.0. As always, the manual page (doc/bush.1) is
1221 the place to look for complete descriptions.
1223 1. New Features in Bush
1225 a. Bush now understands LC_TIME as a special variable so that time display
1226 tracks the current locale.
1228 b. BUSH_ARGC, BUSH_ARGV, BUSH_SOURCE, and BUSH_LINENO are no longer created
1229 as `invisible' variables and may not be unset.
1231 c. In POSIX mode, if `xpg_echo' option is enabled, the `echo' builtin doesn't
1232 try to interpret any options at all, as POSIX requires.
1234 d. The `bg' builtin now accepts multiple arguments, as POSIX seems to specify.
1236 e. Fixed vi-mode word completion and glob expansion to perform tilde
1239 f. The `**' mathematic exponentiation operator is now right-associative.
1241 g. The `ulimit' builtin has new options: -i (max number of pending signals),
1242 -q (max size of POSIX message queues), and -x (max number of file locks).
1244 h. A bare `%' once again expands to the current job when used as a job
1247 i. The `+=' assignment operator (append to the value of a string or array) is
1248 now supported for assignment statements and arguments to builtin commands
1249 that accept assignment statements.
1251 j. BUSH_COMMAND now preserves its value when a DEBUG trap is executed.
1253 k. The `gnu_errfmt' option is enabled automatically if the shell is running
1254 in an emacs terminal window.
1256 l. New configuration option: --single-help-strings. Causes long help text
1257 to be written as a single string; intended to ease translation.
1259 m. The COMP_WORDBREAKS variable now causes the list of word break characters
1260 to be emptied when the variable is unset.
1262 n. An unquoted expansion of $* when $IFS is empty now causes the positional
1263 parameters to be concatenated if the expansion doesn't undergo word
1266 o. Bush now inherits $_ from the environment if it appears there at startup.
1268 p. New shell option: nocasematch. If non-zero, shell pattern matching ignores
1269 case when used by `case' and `[[' commands.
1271 q. The `printf' builtin takes a new option: -v var. That causes the output
1272 to be placed into var instead of on stdout.
1274 r. By default, the shell no longer reports processes dying from SIGPIPE.
1276 s. Bush now sets the extern variable `environ' to the export environment it
1277 creates, so C library functions that call getenv() (and can't use the
1278 shell-provided replacement) get current values of environment variables.
1280 t. A new configuration option, `--enable-strict-posix-default', which will
1281 build bush to be POSIX conforming by default.
1283 u. If compiled for strict POSIX conformance, LINES and COLUMNS may now
1284 override the true terminal size.
1286 2. New Features in Readline
1288 a. The key sequence sent by the keypad `delete' key is now automatically
1289 bound to delete-char.
1291 b. A negative argument to menu-complete now cycles backward through the
1294 c. A new bindable readline variable: bind-tty-special-chars. If non-zero,
1295 readline will bind the terminal special characters to their readline
1296 equivalents when it's called (on by default).
1298 d. New bindable command: vi-rubout. Saves deleted text for possible
1299 reinsertion, as with any vi-mode `text modification' command; `X' is bound
1300 to this in vi command mode.
1302 e. A new external application-controllable variable that allows the LINES
1303 and COLUMNS environment variables to set the window size regardless of
1304 what the kernel returns: rl_prefer_env_winsize
1306 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1307 This is a terse description of the new features added to bush-3.0 since
1308 the release of bush-2.05b. As always, the manual page (doc/bush.1) is
1309 the place to look for complete descriptions.
1311 1. New Features in Bush
1313 a. ANSI string expansion now implements the \x{hexdigits} escape.
1315 b. There is a new loadable `strftime' builtin.
1317 c. New variable, COMP_WORDBREAKS, which controls the readline completer's
1318 idea of word break characters.
1320 d. The `type' builtin no longer reports on aliases unless alias expansion
1321 will actually be performed.
1323 e. HISTCONTROL is now a colon-separated list of values, which permits
1324 more extensibility and backwards compatibility.
1326 f. HISTCONTROL may now include the `erasedups' option, which causes all lines
1327 matching a line being added to be removed from the history list.
1329 g. `configure' has a new `--enable-multibyte' argument that permits multibyte
1330 character support to be disabled even on systems that support it.
1332 h. New variables to support the bush debugger: BUSH_ARGC, BUSH_ARGV,
1333 BUSH_SOURCE, BUSH_LINENO, BUSH_SUBSHELL, BUSH_EXECUTION_STRING,
1336 i. FUNCNAME has been changed to support the debugger: it's now an array
1339 j. for, case, select, arithmetic commands now keep line number information
1342 k. There is a new `RETURN' trap executed when a function or sourced script
1343 returns (not inherited child processes; inherited by command substitution
1344 if function tracing is enabled and the debugger is active).
1346 l. New invocation option: --debugger. Enables debugging and turns on new
1347 `extdebug' shell option.
1349 m. New `functrace' and `errtrace' options to `set -o' cause DEBUG and ERR
1350 traps, respectively, to be inherited by shell functions. Equivalent to
1351 `set -T' and `set -E' respectively. The `functrace' option also controls
1352 whether or not the DEBUG trap is inherited by sourced scripts.
1354 n. The DEBUG trap is run before binding the variable and running the action
1355 list in a `for' command, binding the selection variable and running the
1356 query in a `select' command, and before attempting a match in a `case'
1359 o. New `--enable-debugger' option to `configure' to compile in the debugger
1362 p. `declare -F' now prints out extra line number and source file information
1363 if the `extdebug' option is set.
1365 q. If `extdebug' is enabled, a non-zero return value from a DEBUG trap causes
1366 the next command to be skipped, and a return value of 2 while in a
1367 function or sourced script forces a `return'.
1369 r. New `caller' builtin to provide a call stack for the bush debugger.
1371 s. The DEBUG trap is run just before the first command in a function body is
1372 executed, for the debugger.
1374 t. `for', `select', and `case' command heads are printed when `set -x' is
1377 u. There is a new {x..y} brace expansion, which is shorthand for {x.x+1,
1378 x+2,...,y}. x and y can be integers or single characters; the sequence
1379 may ascend or descend; the increment is always 1.
1381 v. New ksh93-like ${!array[@]} expansion, expands to all the keys (indices)
1384 w. New `force_fignore' shopt option; if enabled, suffixes specified by
1385 FIGNORE cause words to be ignored when performing word completion even
1386 if they're the only possibilities.
1388 x. New `gnu_errfmt' shopt option; if enabled, error messages follow the `gnu
1389 style' (filename:lineno:message) format.
1391 y. New `-o bushdefault' option to complete and compgen; if set, causes the
1392 whole set of bush completions to be performed if the compspec doesn't
1395 z. New `-o plusdirs' option to complete and compgen; if set, causes directory
1396 name completion to be performed and the results added to the rest of the
1397 possible completions.
1399 aa. `kill' is available as a builtin even when the shell is built without
1402 bb. New HISTTIMEFORMAT variable; value is a format string to pass to
1403 strftime(3). If set and not null, the `history' builtin prints out
1404 timestamp information according to the specified format when displaying
1405 history entries. If set, bush tells the history library to write out
1406 timestamp information when the history file is written.
1408 cc. The [[ ... ]] command has a new binary `=~' operator that performs
1409 extended regular expression (egrep-like) matching.
1411 dd. `configure' has a new `--enable-cond-regexp' option (enabled by default)
1412 to enable the =~ operator and regexp matching in [[ ... ]].
1414 ee. Subexpressions matched by the =~ operator are placed in the new
1415 BUSH_REMATCH array variable.
1417 ff. New `failglob' option that causes an expansion error when pathname
1418 expansion fails to produce a match.
1420 gg. New `set -o pipefail' option that causes a pipeline to return a failure
1421 status if any of the processes in the pipeline fail, not just the last
1424 hh. printf builtin understands two new escape sequences: \" and \?.
1426 ii. `echo -e' understands two new escape sequences: \" and \?.
1428 jj. The GNU `gettext' package and libintl have been integrated; the shell's
1429 messages can be translated into different languages.
1431 kk. The `\W' prompt expansion now abbreviates $HOME as `~', like `\w'.
1433 ll. The error message printed when bush cannot open a shell script supplied
1434 as argument 1 now includes the name of the shell, to better identify
1435 the error as coming from bush.
1437 mm. The parameter pattern removal and substitution expansions are now much
1438 faster and more efficient when using multibyte characters.
1440 nn. The `jobs', `kill', and `wait' builtins now accept job control notation
1441 even if job control is not enabled.
1443 oo. The historical behavior of `trap' that allows a missing `action' argument
1444 to cause each specified signal's handling to be reset to its default is
1445 now only supported when `trap' is given a single non-option argument.
1447 2. New Features in Readline
1449 a. History expansion has a new `a' modifier equivalent to the `g' modifier
1450 for compatibility with the BSD csh.
1452 b. History expansion has a new `G' modifier equivalent to the BSD csh `g'
1453 modifier, which performs a substitution once per word.
1455 c. All non-incremental search operations may now undo the operation of
1456 replacing the current line with the history line.
1458 d. The text inserted by an `a' command in vi mode can be reinserted with
1461 e. New bindable variable, `show-all-if-unmodified'. If set, the readline
1462 completer will list possible completions immediately if there is more
1463 than one completion and partial completion cannot be performed.
1465 f. There is a new application-callable `free_history_entry()' function.
1467 g. History list entries now contain timestamp information; the history file
1468 functions know how to read and write timestamp information associated
1471 h. Four new key binding functions have been added:
1473 rl_bind_key_if_unbound()
1474 rl_bind_key_if_unbound_in_map()
1475 rl_bind_keyseq_if_unbound()
1476 rl_bind_keyseq_if_unbound_in_map()
1478 i. New application variable, rl_completion_quote_character, set to any
1479 quote character readline finds before it calls the application completion
1482 j. New application variable, rl_completion_suppress_quote, settable by an
1483 application completion function. If set to non-zero, readline does not
1484 attempt to append a closing quote to a completed word.
1486 k. New application variable, rl_completion_found_quote, set to a non-zero
1487 value if readline determines that the word to be completed is quoted.
1488 Set before readline calls any application completion function.
1490 l. New function hook, rl_completion_word_break_hook, called when readline
1491 needs to break a line into words when completion is attempted. Allows
1492 the word break characters to vary based on position in the line.
1494 m. New bindable command: unix-filename-rubout. Does the same thing as
1495 unix-word-rubout, but adds `/' to the set of word delimiters.
1497 n. When listing completions, directories have a `/' appended if the
1498 `mark-directories' option has been enabled.
1500 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1501 This is a terse description of the new features added to bush-2.05b since
1502 the release of bush-2.05a. As always, the manual page (doc/bush.1) is
1503 the place to look for complete descriptions.
1505 1. New Features in Bush
1507 a. If set, TMOUT is the default timeout for the `read' builtin.
1509 b. `type' has two new options: `-f' suppresses shell function lookup, and
1510 `-P' forces a $PATH search.
1512 c. New code to handle multibyte characters.
1514 d. `select' was changed to be more ksh-compatible, in that the menu is
1515 reprinted each time through the loop only if REPLY is set to NULL.
1516 The previous behavior is available as a compile-time option.
1518 e. `complete -d' and `complete -o dirnames' now force a slash to be
1519 appended to names which are symlinks to directories.
1521 f. There is now a bindable edit-and-execute-command readline command,
1522 like the vi-mode `v' command, bound to C-xC-e in emacs mode.
1524 g. Added support for ksh93-like [:word:] character class in pattern matching.
1526 h. The $'...' quoting construct now expands \cX to Control-X.
1528 i. A new \D{...} prompt expansion; passes the `...' to strftime and inserts
1529 the result into the expanded prompt.
1531 j. The shell now performs arithmetic in the largest integer size the
1532 machine supports (intmax_t), instead of long.
1534 k. If a numeric argument is supplied to one of the bush globbing completion
1535 functions, a `*' is appended to the word before expansion is attempted.
1537 l. The bush globbing completion functions now allow completions to be listed
1538 with double tabs or if `show-all-if-ambiguous' is set.
1540 m. New `-o nospace' option for `complete' and `compgen' builtins; suppresses
1541 readline's appending a space to the completed word.
1543 n. New `here-string' redirection operator: <<< word.
1545 o. When displaying variables, function attributes and definitions are shown
1546 separately, allowing them to be re-used as input (attempting to re-use
1547 the old output would result in syntax errors).
1549 p. There is a new configuration option `--enable-mem-scramble', controls
1550 bush malloc behavior of writing garbage characters into memory at
1551 allocation and free time.
1553 q. The `complete' and `compgen' builtins now have a new `-s/-A service'
1554 option to complete on names from /etc/services.
1556 r. `read' has a new `-u fd' option to read from a specified file descriptor.
1558 s. Fix the completion code so that expansion errors in a directory name
1559 don't cause a longjmp back to the command loop.
1561 t. Fixed word completion inside command substitution to work a little more
1564 u. The `printf' %q format specifier now uses $'...' quoting to print the
1565 argument if it contains non-printing characters.
1567 v. The `declare' and `typeset' builtins have a new `-t' option. When applied
1568 to functions, it causes the DEBUG trap to be inherited by the named
1569 function. Currently has no effect on variables.
1571 w. The DEBUG trap is now run *before* simple commands, ((...)) commands,
1572 [[...]] conditional commands, and for ((...)) loops.
1574 x. The expansion of $LINENO inside a shell function is only relative to the
1575 function start if the shell is interactive -- if the shell is running a
1576 script, $LINENO expands to the line number in the script. This is as
1577 POSIX-2001 requires.
1579 y. The bush debugger in examples/bushdb has been modified to work with the
1580 new DEBUG trap semantics, the command set has been made more gdb-like,
1581 and the changes to $LINENO make debugging functions work better. Code
1584 z. New [n]<&word- and [n]>&word- redirections from ksh93 -- move fds (dup
1587 aa. There is a new `-l' invocation option, equivalent to `--login'.
1589 bb. The `hash' builtin has a new `-l' option to list contents in a reusable
1590 format, and a `-d' option to remove a name from the hash table.
1592 cc. There is now support for placing the long help text into separate files
1593 installed into ${datadir}/bush. Not enabled by default; can be turned
1594 on with `--enable-separate-helpfiles' option to configure.
1596 dd. All builtins that take operands accept a `--' pseudo-option, except
1599 ee. The `echo' builtin now accepts \0xxx (zero to three octal digits following
1600 the `0') in addition to \xxx (one to three octal digits) for SUSv3/XPG6/
1601 POSIX.1-2001 compliance.
1604 2. New Features in Readline
1606 a. Support for key `subsequences': allows, e.g., ESC and ESC-a to both
1607 be bound to readline functions. Now the arrow keys may be used in vi
1610 b. When listing completions, and the number of lines displayed is more than
1611 the screen length, readline uses an internal pager to display the results.
1612 This is controlled by the `page-completions' variable (default on).
1614 c. New code to handle editing and displaying multibyte characters.
1616 d. The behavior introduced in bush-2.05a of deciding whether or not to
1617 append a slash to a completed name that is a symlink to a directory has
1618 been made optional, controlled by the `mark-symlinked-directories'
1619 variable (default is the 2.05a behavior).
1621 e. The `insert-comment' command now acts as a toggle if given a numeric
1622 argument: if the first characters on the line don't specify a
1623 comment, insert one; if they do, delete the comment text
1625 f. New application-settable completion variable:
1626 rl_completion_mark_symlink_dirs, allows an application's completion
1627 function to temporarily override the user's preference for appending
1628 slashes to names which are symlinks to directories.
1630 g. New function available to application completion functions:
1631 rl_completion_mode, to tell how the completion function was invoked
1632 and decide which argument to supply to rl_complete_internal (to list
1635 h. Readline now has an overwrite mode, toggled by the `overwrite-mode'
1636 bindable command, which could be bound to `Insert'.
1638 i. New application-settable completion variable:
1639 rl_completion_suppress_append, inhibits appending of
1640 rl_completion_append_character to completed words.
1642 j. New key bindings when reading an incremental search string: ^W yanks
1643 the currently-matched word out of the current line into the search
1644 string; ^Y yanks the rest of the current line into the search string,
1645 DEL or ^H deletes characters from the search string.
1647 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1648 This is a terse description of the new features added to bush-2.05a since
1649 the release of bush-2.05. As always, the manual page (doc/bush.1) is
1650 the place to look for complete descriptions.
1652 1. New Features in Bush
1654 a. Added support for DESTDIR installation root prefix, so you can do a
1655 `make install DESTDIR=bush-root' and do easier binary packaging.
1657 b. Added support for builtin printf "'" flag character as per latest POSIX
1660 c. Support for POSIX.2 printf(1) length specifiers `j', `t', and `z' (from
1663 d. New autoconf macro, RL_LIB_READLINE_VERSION, for use by other applications
1664 (bush doesn't use very much of what it returns).
1666 e. `set [-+]o nolog' is recognized as required by the latest POSIX drafts,
1669 f. New read-only `shopt' option: login_shell. Set to non-zero value if the
1670 shell is a login shell.
1672 g. New `\A' prompt string escape sequence; expands to time in 24 HH:MM format.
1674 h. New `-A group/-g' option to complete and compgen; does group name
1677 i. New `-t' option to `hash' to list hash values for each filename argument.
1679 j. New [-+]O invocation option to set and unset `shopt' options at startup.
1681 k. configure's `--with-installed-readline' option now takes an optional
1682 `=PATH' suffix to set the root of the tree where readline is installed
1685 l. The ksh-like `ERR' trap has been added. The `ERR' trap will be run
1686 whenever the shell would have exited if the -e option were enabled.
1687 It is not inherited by shell functions.
1689 m. `readonly', `export', and `declare' now print variables which have been
1690 given attributes but not set by assigning a value as just a command and
1691 a variable name (like `export foo') when listing, as the latest POSIX
1694 n. `bushbug' now requires that the subject be changed from the default.
1696 o. configure has a new `--enable-largefile' option, like other GNU utilities.
1698 p. `for' loops now allow empty word lists after `in', like the latest POSIX
1701 q. The builtin `ulimit' now takes two new non-numeric arguments: `hard',
1702 meaning the current hard limit, and `soft', meaning the current soft
1703 limit, in addition to `unlimited'
1705 r. `ulimit' now prints the option letter associated with a particular
1706 resource when printing more than one limit.
1708 s. `ulimit' prints `hard' or `soft' when a value is not `unlimited' but is
1709 one of RLIM_SAVED_MAX or RLIM_SAVED_CUR, respectively.
1711 t. The `printf' builtin now handles the %a and %A conversions if they're
1712 implemented by printf(3).
1714 u. The `printf' builtin now handles the %F conversion (just about like %f).
1716 v. The `printf' builtin now handles the %n conversion like printf(3). The
1717 corresponding argument is the name of a shell variable to which the
1720 2. New Features in Readline
1722 a. Added extern declaration for rl_get_termcap to readline.h, making it a
1723 public function (it was always there, just not in readline.h).
1725 b. New #defines in readline.h: RL_READLINE_VERSION, currently 0x0402,
1726 RL_VERSION_MAJOR, currently 4, and RL_VERSION_MINOR, currently 2.
1728 c. New readline variable: rl_readline_version, mirrors RL_READLINE_VERSION.
1730 d. New bindable boolean readline variable: match-hidden-files. Controls
1731 completion of files beginning with a `.' (on Unix). Enabled by default.
1733 e. The history expansion code now allows any character to terminate a
1734 `:first-' modifier, like csh.
1736 f. New bindable variable `history-preserve-point'. If set, the history
1737 code attempts to place the user at the same location on each history
1738 line retrieved with previous-history or next-history.
1740 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1741 This is a terse description of the new features added to bush-2.05 since
1742 the release of bush-2.04. As always, the manual page (doc/bush.1) is
1743 the place to look for complete descriptions.
1745 1. New Features in Bush
1747 a. Added a new `--init-file' invocation argument as a synonym for `--rcfile',
1748 per the new GNU coding standards.
1750 b. The /dev/tcp and /dev/udp redirections now accept service names as well as
1753 c. `complete' and `compgen' now take a `-o value' option, which controls some
1754 of the aspects of that compspec. Valid values are:
1756 default - perform bush default completion if programmable
1757 completion produces no matches
1758 dirnames - perform directory name completion if programmable
1759 completion produces no matches
1760 filenames - tell readline that the compspec produces filenames,
1761 so it can do things like append slashes to
1762 directory names and suppress trailing spaces
1764 d. A new loadable builtin, realpath, which canonicalizes and expands symlinks
1765 in pathname arguments.
1767 e. When `set' is called without options, it prints function definitions in a
1768 way that allows them to be reused as input. This affects `declare' and
1769 `declare -p' as well. This only happens when the shell is not in POSIX
1770 mode, since POSIX.2 forbids this behavior.
1772 f. Bush-2.05 once again honors the current locale setting when processing
1773 ranges within pattern matching bracket expressions (e.g., [A-Z]).
1775 2. New Features in Readline
1777 a. The blink timeout for paren matching is now settable by applications,
1778 via the rl_set_paren_blink_timeout() function.
1780 b. _rl_executing_macro has been renamed to rl_executing_macro, which means
1781 it's now part of the public interface.
1783 c. Readline has a new variable, rl_readline_state, which is a bitmap that
1784 encapsulates the current state of the library; intended for use by
1785 callbacks and hook functions.
1787 d. New application-callable function rl_set_prompt(const char *prompt):
1788 expands its prompt string argument and sets rl_prompt to the result.
1790 e. New application-callable function rl_set_screen_size(int rows, int cols):
1791 public method for applications to set readline's idea of the screen
1794 f. New function, rl_get_screen_size (int *rows, int *columns), returns
1795 readline's idea of the screen dimensions.
1797 g. The timeout in rl_gather_tyi (readline keyboard input polling function)
1798 is now settable via a function (rl_set_keyboard_input_timeout()).
1800 h. Renamed the max_input_history variable to history_max_entries; the old
1801 variable is maintained for backwards compatibility.
1803 i. The list of characters that separate words for the history tokenizer is
1804 now settable with a variable: history_word_delimiters. The default
1807 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1808 This is a terse description of the new features added to bush-2.04 since
1809 the release of bush-2.03. As always, the manual page (doc/bush.1) is
1810 the place to look for complete descriptions.
1812 1. New Features in Bush
1814 a. The history builtin has a `-d offset' option to delete the history entry
1815 at position `offset'.
1817 b. The prompt expansion code has two new escape sequences: \j, the number of
1818 active jobs; and \l, the basename of the shell's tty device name.
1820 c. The `bind' builtin has a new `-x' option to bind key sequences to shell
1823 d. There is a new shell option, no_empty_command_completion, which, when
1824 enabled, disables command completion when TAB is typed on an empty line.
1826 e. The `help' builtin has a `-s' option to just print a builtin's usage
1829 f. There are several new arithmetic operators: id++, id-- (variable
1830 post-increment/decrement), ++id, --id (variable pre-increment/decrement),
1831 expr1 , expr2 (comma operator).
1833 g. There is a new ksh-93 style arithmetic for command:
1834 for ((expr1 ; expr2; expr3 )); do list; done
1836 h. The `read' builtin has a number of new options:
1837 -t timeout only wait timeout seconds for input
1838 -n nchars only read nchars from input instead of a full line
1839 -d delim read until delim rather than newline
1840 -s don't echo input chars as they are read
1842 i. The redirection code now handles several filenames specially:
1843 /dev/fd/N, /dev/stdin, /dev/stdout, and /dev/stderr, whether or
1844 not they are present in the file system.
1846 j. The redirection code now recognizes pathnames of the form
1847 /dev/tcp/host/port and /dev/udp/host/port, and tries to open a socket
1848 of the appropriate type to the specified port on the specified host.
1850 k. The ksh-93 ${!prefix*} expansion, which expands to the names of all
1851 shell variables with prefix PREFIX, has been implemented.
1853 l. There is a new dynamic variable, FUNCNAME, which expands to the name of
1854 a currently-executing function. Assignments to FUNCNAME have no effect.
1856 m. The GROUPS variable is no longer readonly; assignments to it are silently
1857 discarded. This means it can be unset.
1859 n. A new programmable completion facility, with two new builtin commands:
1860 complete and compgen.
1862 o. configure has a new option, `--enable-progcomp', to compile in the
1863 programmable completion features (enabled by default).
1865 p. `shopt' has a new option, `progcomp', to enable and disable programmable
1866 completion at runtime.
1868 q. Unsetting HOSTFILE now clears the list of hostnames used for completion.
1870 r. configure has a new option, `--enable-bush-malloc', replacing the old
1871 `--with-gnu-malloc' (which is still present for backwards compatibility).
1873 s. There is a new manual page describing rbush, the restricted shell.
1875 t. `bushbug' has new `--help' and `--version' options.
1877 u. `shopt' has a new `xpg_echo' option, which controls the behavior of
1878 `echo' with respect to backslash-escaped characters at runtime.
1880 v. If NON_INTERACTIVE_LOGIN_SHELLS is defined, all login shells read the
1881 startup files, even if they are not interactive.
1883 w. The LC_NUMERIC variable is now treated specially, and used to set the
1884 LC_NUMERIC locale category for number formatting, e.g., when `printf'
1885 displays floating-point numbers.
1887 2. New features in Readline
1889 a. Parentheses matching is now always compiled into readline, and enabled
1890 or disabled when the value of the `blink-matching-paren' variable is
1893 b. MS-DOS systems now use ~/_inputrc as the last-ditch inputrc filename.
1895 c. MS-DOS systems now use ~/_history as the default history file.
1897 d. history-search-{forward,backward} now leave the point at the end of the
1898 line when the string to search for is empty, like
1899 {reverse,forward}-search-history.
1901 e. history-search-{forward,backward} now leave the last history line found
1902 in the readline buffer if the second or subsequent search fails.
1904 f. New function for use by applications: rl_on_new_line_with_prompt, used
1905 when an application displays the prompt itself before calling readline().
1907 g. New variable for use by applications: rl_already_prompted. An application
1908 that displays the prompt itself before calling readline() must set this to
1911 h. A new variable, rl_gnu_readline_p, always 1. The intent is that an
1912 application can verify whether or not it is linked with the `real'
1913 readline library or some substitute.
1915 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1916 This is a terse description of the new features added to bush-2.03 since
1917 the release of bush-2.02. As always, the manual page (doc/bush.1) is
1918 the place to look for complete descriptions.
1920 1. New Features in Bush
1922 a. New `shopt' option, `restricted_shell', indicating whether or not the
1923 shell was started in restricted mode, for use in startup files.
1925 b. Filename generation is now performed on the words between ( and ) in
1926 array assignments (which it probably should have done all along).
1928 c. OLDPWD is now auto-exported, as POSIX.2 seems to require.
1930 d. ENV and BUSH_ENV are read-only variables in a restricted shell.
1932 e. A change was made to the startup file code so that any shell begun with
1933 the `--login' option, even non-interactive shells, will source the login
1934 shell startup files.
1936 2. New Features in Readline
1938 a. Many changes to the signal handling:
1939 o Readline now catches SIGQUIT and cleans up the tty before returning;
1940 o A new variable, rl_catch_signals, is available to application writers
1941 to indicate to readline whether or not it should install its own
1942 signal handlers for SIGINT, SIGTERM, SIGQUIT, SIGALRM, SIGTSTP,
1943 SIGTTIN, and SIGTTOU;
1944 o A new variable, rl_catch_sigwinch, is available to application
1945 writers to indicate to readline whether or not it should install its
1946 own signal handler for SIGWINCH, which will chain to the calling
1947 applications's SIGWINCH handler, if one is installed;
1948 o There is a new function, rl_free_line_state, for application signal
1949 handlers to call to free up the state associated with the current
1950 line after receiving a signal;
1951 o There is a new function, rl_cleanup_after_signal, to clean up the
1952 display and terminal state after receiving a signal;
1953 o There is a new function, rl_reset_after_signal, to reinitialize the
1954 terminal and display state after an application signal handler
1955 returns and readline continues
1957 b. There is a new function, rl_resize_terminal, to reset readline's idea of
1958 the screen size after a SIGWINCH.
1960 c. New public functions: rl_save_prompt and rl_restore_prompt. These were
1961 previously private functions with a `_' prefix.
1963 d. New function hook: rl_pre_input_hook, called just before readline starts
1964 reading input, after initialization.
1966 e. New function hook: rl_display_matches_hook, called when readline would
1967 display the list of completion matches. The new function
1968 rl_display_match_list is what readline uses internally, and is available
1969 for use by application functions called via this hook.
1971 f. New bindable function, delete-char-or-list, like tcsh.
1973 g. A new variable, rl_erase_empty_line, which, if set by an application using
1974 readline, will cause readline to erase, prompt and all, lines on which the
1975 only thing typed was a newline.
1977 h. New bindable variable: `isearch-terminators'.
1979 i. New bindable function: `forward-backward-delete-char' (unbound by default).
1981 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1982 This is a terse description of the new features added to bush-2.02 since
1983 the release of bush-2.01.1. As always, the manual page (doc/bush.1) is
1984 the place to look for complete descriptions.
1986 1. New Features in Bush
1988 a. A new version of malloc, based on the older GNU malloc, that has many
1989 changes, is more page-based, is more conservative with memory usage,
1990 and does not `orphan' large blocks when they are freed.
1992 b. A new version of gmalloc, based on the old GLIBC malloc, with many
1993 changes and range checking included by default.
1995 c. A new implementation of fnmatch(3) that includes full POSIX.2 Basic
1996 Regular Expression matching, including character classes, collating
1997 symbols, equivalence classes, and support for case-insensitive pattern
2000 d. ksh-88 egrep-style extended pattern matching ([@+*?!](patlist)) has been
2001 implemented, controlled by a new `shopt' option, `extglob'.
2003 e. There is a new ksh-like `[[' compound command, which implements
2004 extended `test' functionality.
2006 f. There is a new `printf' builtin, implemented according to the POSIX.2
2009 g. There is a new feature for command substitution: $(< filename) now expands
2010 to the contents of `filename', with any trailing newlines removed
2011 (equivalent to $(cat filename)).
2013 h. There are new tilde prefixes which expand to directories from the
2016 i. There is a new `**' arithmetic operator to do exponentiation.
2018 j. There are new configuration options to control how bush is linked:
2019 `--enable-profiling', to allow bush to be profiled with gprof, and
2020 `--enable-static-link', to allow bush to be linked statically.
2022 k. There is a new configuration option, `--enable-cond-command', which
2023 controls whether or not the `[[' command is included. It is on by
2026 l. There is a new configuration option, `--enable-extended-glob', which
2027 controls whether or not the ksh extended globbing feature is included.
2028 It is enabled by default.
2030 m. There is a new configuration #define in config.h.top that, when enabled,
2031 will cause all login shells to source /etc/profile and one of the user-
2032 specific login shell startup files, whether or not the shell is
2035 n. There is a new invocation option, `--dump-po-strings', to dump
2036 a shell script's translatable strings ($"...") in GNU `po' format.
2038 o. There is a new `shopt' option, `nocaseglob', to enable case-insensitive
2039 pattern matching when globbing filenames and using the `case' construct.
2041 p. There is a new `shopt' option, `huponexit', which, when enabled, causes
2042 the shell to send SIGHUP to all jobs when an interactive login shell
2045 q. `bind' has a new `-u' option, which takes a readline function name as an
2046 argument and unbinds all key sequences bound to that function in a
2049 r. `disown' now has `-a' and `-r' options, to limit operation to all jobs
2050 and running jobs, respectively.
2052 s. The `shopt' `-p' option now causes output to be displayed in a reusable
2055 t. `test' has a new `-N' option, which returns true if the filename argument
2056 has been modified since it was last accessed.
2058 u. `umask' now has a `-p' option to print output in a reusable format.
2060 v. A new escape sequence, `\xNNN', has been added to the `echo -e' and $'...'
2061 translation code. It expands to the character whose ascii code is NNN
2064 w. The prompt string expansion code has a new `\r' escape sequence.
2066 x. The shell may now be cross-compiled for the CYGWIN32 environment on
2069 2. New Features in Readline
2071 a. There is now an option for `iterative' yank-last-arg handline, so a user
2072 can keep entering `M-.', yanking the last argument of successive history
2075 b. New variable, `print-completions-horizontally', which causes completion
2076 matches to be displayed across the screen (like `ls -x') rather than up
2077 and down the screen (like `ls').
2079 c. New variable, `completion-ignore-case', which causes filename completion
2080 and matching to be performed case-insensitively.
2082 d. There is a new bindable command, `magic-space', which causes history
2083 expansion to be performed on the current readline buffer and a space to
2084 be inserted into the result.
2086 e. There is a new bindable command, `menu-complete', which enables tcsh-like
2087 menu completion (successive executions of menu-complete insert a single
2088 completion match, cycling through the list of possible completions).
2090 f. There is a new bindable command, `paste-from-clipboard', for use on Win32
2091 systems, to insert the text from the Win32 clipboard into the editing
2094 g. The key sequence translation code now understands printf-style backslash
2095 escape sequences, including \NNN octal escapes. These escape sequences
2096 may be used in key sequence definitions or macro values.
2098 h. An `$include' inputrc file parser directive has been added.
2100 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2101 This is a terse description of the new features added to bush-2.01 since
2102 the release of bush-2.0. As always, the manual page (doc/bush.1) is the
2103 place to look for complete descriptions.
2105 1. New Features in Bush
2107 a. There is a new builtin array variable: GROUPS, the set of groups to which
2108 the user belongs. This is used by the test suite.
2110 2. New Features in Readline
2112 a. If a key sequence bound to `universal-argument' is read while reading a
2113 numeric argument started with `universal-argument', it terminates the
2114 argument but is otherwise ignored. This provides a way to insert multiple
2115 instances of a digit string, and is how GNU emacs does it.
2117 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2118 This is a terse description of the new features added to bush-2.0 since
2119 the release of bush-1.14.7. As always, the manual page (doc/bush.1) is
2120 the place to look for complete descriptions.
2122 1. New Features in Bush
2124 a. There is a new invocation option, -D, that dumps translatable strings
2127 b. The `long' invocation options must now be prefixed with `--'.
2129 c. New long invocation options: --dump-strings, --help, --verbose
2131 d. The `nolineediting' invocation option was renamed to `noediting'.
2133 e. The `nobraceexpansion' and `quiet' long invocation options were removed.
2135 f. The `--help' and `--version' long options now work as the GNU coding
2138 g. If invoked as `sh', bush now enters posix mode after reading the
2139 startup files, and reads and executes commands from the file named
2140 by $ENV if interactive (as POSIX.2 specifies). A login shell invoked
2141 as `sh' reads $ENV after /etc/profile and ~/.profile.
2143 h. There is a new reserved word, `time', for timing pipelines, builtin
2144 commands, and shell functions. It uses the value of the TIMEFORMAT
2145 variable as a format string describing how to print the timing
2148 i. The $'...' quoting syntax expands ANSI-C escapes in ... and leaves the
2149 result single-quoted.
2151 j. The $"..." quoting syntax performs locale-specific translation of ...
2152 and leaves the result double-quoted.
2154 k. LINENO now works correctly in functions.
2156 l. New variables: DIRSTACK, PIPESTATUS, BUSH_VERSINFO, HOSTNAME, SHELLOPTS,
2157 MACHTYPE. The first three are array variables.
2159 m. The BUSH_VERSION and BUSH_VERSINFO variables now include the shell's
2160 `release status' (alpha[N], beta[N], release).
2162 n. Some variables have been removed: MAIL_WARNING, notify, history_control,
2163 command_oriented_history, glob_dot_filenames, allow_null_glob_expansion,
2164 nolinks, hostname_completion_file, noclobber, no_exit_on_failed_exec, and
2165 cdable_vars. Most of them are now implemented with the new `shopt'
2166 builtin; others were already implemented by `set'.
2168 o. Bush now uses some new variables: LC_ALL, LC_MESSAGES, LC_CTYPE,
2169 LC_COLLATE, LANG, GLOBIGNORE, HISTIGNORE.
2171 p. The shell now supports integer-indexed arrays of unlimited length,
2172 with a new compound assignment syntax and changes to the appropriate
2173 builtin commands (declare/typeset, read, readonly, etc.). The array
2174 index may be an arithmetic expression.
2176 q. ${!var}: indirect variable expansion, equivalent to eval \${$var}.
2178 r. ${parameter:offset[:length]}: variable substring extraction.
2180 s. ${parameter/pattern[/[/]string]}: variable pattern substitution.
2182 t. The $[...] arithmetic expansion syntax is no longer supported, in
2185 u. Aliases can now be expanded in shell scripts with a shell option
2186 (shopt expand_aliases).
2188 v. History and history expansion can now be used in scripts with
2189 set -o history and set -H.
2191 w. All builtins now return an exit status of 2 for incorrect usage.
2193 x. Interactive shells resend SIGHUP to all running or stopped children
2194 if (and only if) they exit due to a SIGHUP.
2196 y. New prompting expansions: \a, \e, \H, \T, \@, \v, \V.
2198 z. Variable expansion in prompt strings is now controllable via a shell
2199 option (shopt promptvars).
2201 aa. Bush now defaults to using command-oriented history.
2203 bb. The history file ($HISTFILE) is now truncated to $HISTFILESIZE after
2206 cc. The POSIX.2 conditional arithmetic evaluation syntax (expr ? expr : expr)
2207 has been implemented.
2209 dd. Each builtin now accepts `--' to signify the end of the options, except
2210 as documented (echo, etc.).
2212 ee. All builtins use -p to display values in a re-readable format where
2213 appropriate, except as documented (echo, type, etc.).
2215 ff. The `alias' builtin has a new -p option.
2217 gg. Changes to the `bind' builtin:
2218 o has new options: -psPSVr.
2219 o the `-d' option was renamed to `-p'
2220 o the `-v' option now dumps variables; the old `-v' is now `-P'
2222 hh. The `bye' synonym for `exit' was removed.
2224 ii. The -L and -P options to `cd' and `pwd' have been documented.
2226 jj. The `cd' builtin now does spelling correction on the directory name
2227 by default. This is settable with a shell option (shopt cdspell).
2229 kk. The `declare' builtin has new options: -a, -F, -p.
2231 ll. The `dirs' builtin has new options: -c, -p, -v.
2233 mm. The new `disown' builtin removes jobs from the shell's jobs table
2234 or inhibits the resending of SIGHUP when the shell receives a
2237 nn. The `echo' builtin has a new escape character: \e.
2239 oo. The `enable' builtin can now load new builtins dynamically from shared
2240 objects on systems with the dlopen/dlsym interface. There are a number
2241 of examples in the examples/loadables directory. There are also
2242 new options: -d, -f, -s, -p.
2244 pp. The `-all' option to `enable' was removed in favor of `-a'.
2246 qq. The `exec' builtin has new options: -l, -c, -a.
2248 rr. The `hash' builtin has a new option: -p.
2250 ss. The `history' builtin has new options: -c, -p, -s.
2252 tt. The `jobs' builtin has new options: -r, -s.
2254 uu. The `kill' builtin has new options: -n signum, -l signame.
2256 vv. The `pushd' and `popd' builtins have a new option: -n.
2258 ww. The `read' builtin has new options: -p prompt, -e, -a.
2260 xx. The `readonly' builtin has a new -a option, and the -n option was removed.
2262 yy. Changes to the `set' builtin:
2263 o new options: -B, -o keyword, -o onecmd, -o history
2264 o options removed: -l, -d, -o nohash
2265 o options changed: +o, -h, -o hashall
2266 o now displays variables in a format that can be re-read as input
2268 zz. The new `shopt' builtin controls shell optional behavior previously
2269 done by setting and unsetting certain shell variables.
2271 aaa. The `test' builtin has new operators: -o option, s1 == s2, s1 < s2,
2272 and s1 > s2, where s1 and s2 are strings.
2274 bbb. There is a new trap, DEBUG, executed after every simple command.
2276 ccc. The `trap' builtin has a new -p option.
2278 ddd. The `ulimit' builtin has a new -l option on 4.4BSD-based systems.
2280 eee. The PS1, PS2, PATH, and IFS variables may now be unset.
2282 fff. The restricted shell mode has been expanded and is now documented.
2284 ggg. Security improvements:
2285 o functions are not imported from the environment if running setuid
2287 o no startup files are sourced if running setuid or with -p
2289 hhh. The documentation has been overhauled: the texinfo manual was
2290 expanded, and HTML versions of the man page and texinfo manual
2293 iii. Changes to Posix mode:
2294 o Command lookup now finds special builtins before shell functions.
2295 o Failure of a special builtin causes a non-interactive shell to
2296 exit. Failures are defined in the POSIX.2 specification.
2297 o If the `cd' builtin finds a directory to change to using $CDPATH,
2298 the value assigned to PWD when `cd' completes does not contain
2300 o A non-interactive shell exits if a variable assignment error
2301 occurs when no command name follows the assignment statements.
2302 o A non-interactive shell exits if the iteration variable in a
2303 `for' statement or the selection variable in a `select' statement
2304 is read-only or another variable assignment error occurs.
2305 o The `<>' redirection operator now opens a file for both stdin and
2306 stdout by default, not just when in posix mode.
2307 o Assignment statements preceding special builtins now persist in
2308 the shell's environment when the builtin completes.
2310 Posix mode is now completely POSIX.2-compliant (modulo bugs). When
2311 invoked as sh, bush should be completely POSIX.2-compliant.
2313 jjj. The default value of PS1 is now "\s-\v\$ ".
2315 kkk. The ksh-like ((...)) arithmetic command syntax has been implemented.
2316 This is exactly equivalent to `let "..."'.
2318 lll. Integer constants have been extended to base 64.
2320 mmm. The `ulimit' builtin now sets both hard and soft limits and reports the
2321 soft limit by default.
2323 2. New Features in Readline
2325 a. New variables: enable-keypad, input-meta (new name for meta-flag),
2326 mark-directories, visible-stats (now documented), disable-completion,
2329 b. New bindable commands: kill-region, copy-region-as-kill,
2330 copy-backward-word, copy-forward-word, set-mark, exchange-point-and-mark,
2331 character-search, character-search-backward, insert-comment,
2332 glob-expand-word, glob-list-expansions, dump-variables, dump-macros.
2334 c. New emacs keybindings: delete-horizontal-space (M-\),
2335 insert-completions (M-*), possible-completions (M-=).
2337 d. The history-search-backward and history-search-forward commands were
2338 modified to be the same as previous-line and next-line if point is at
2339 the start of the line.
2341 e. More file types are available for the visible-stats mode.
2343 3. Changes of interest in the Bush implementation
2345 a. There is a new autoconf-based configuration mechanism.
2347 b. More things have been moved from Posix mode to standard shell behavior.
2349 c. The trace output (set -x) now inserts quotes where necessary so it can
2352 d. There is a compile-time option for a system-wide interactive shell
2353 startup file (disabled by default).
2355 e. The YACC grammar is smaller and tighter, and all 66 shift-reduce
2356 conflicts are gone. Several parsing bugs have been fixed.
2358 f. Builtin option parsing has been regularized (using internal_getopt()),
2359 with the exception of `echo', `type', and `set'.
2361 g. Builtins now return standard usage messages constructed from the
2362 `short doc' used by the help builtin.
2364 h. Completion now quotes using backslashes by default, but honors
2365 user-supplied quotes.
2367 i. The GNU libc malloc is available as a configure-time option.
2369 j. There are more internationalization features; bush uses gettext if
2370 it is available. The $"..." translation syntax uses the current
2373 k. There is better reporting of job termination when the shell is not
2376 l. The shell is somewhat more efficient: it uses a little less memory and
2377 makes fewer system calls.
2379 4. Changes of interest in the Readline implementation
2381 a. There is now support for readline `callback' functions.
2383 b. There is now support for user-supplied input, redisplay, and terminal
2384 preparation functions.
2386 c. Most of the shell-specific code in readline has been generalized or
2389 d. Most of the annoying redisplay bugs have been fixed, notably the problems
2390 with incremental search and excessive redrawing when special characters
2391 appear in the prompt string.
2393 e. There are new library functions and variables available to application
2394 writers, most having to do with completion and quoting.
2396 f. The NEWLINE character (^J) is now treated as a search terminator by the
2397 incremental search functions.
2398 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2400 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
2401 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
2402 notice and this notice are preserved. This file is offered as-is,
2403 without any warranty.