1 This is a terse description of the new features added to bash-2.05a since
2 the release of bash-2.05. As always, the manual page (doc/bash.1) is
3 the place to look for complete descriptions.
5 1. New Features in Bash
7 a. Added support for DESTDIR installation root prefix, so you can do a
8 `make install DESTDIR=bash-root' and do easier binary packaging.
10 b. Added support for builtin printf "'" flag character as per latest POSIX
13 c. Support for POSIX.2 printf(1) length specifiers `j', `t', and `z' (from
16 d. New autoconf macro, RL_LIB_READLINE_VERSION, for use by other applications
17 (bash doesn't use very much of what it returns).
19 e. `set [-+]o nolog' is recognized as required by the latest POSIX drafts,
22 f. New read-only `shopt' option: login_shell. Set to non-zero value if the
23 shell is a login shell.
25 g. New `\A' prompt string escape sequence; expands to time in 24 HH:MM format.
27 h. New `-A group/-g' option to complete and compgen; does group name
30 i. New `-t' option to `hash' to list hash values for each filename argument.
32 j. New [-+]O invocation option to set and unset `shopt' options at startup.
34 k. configure's `--with-installed-readline' option now takes an optional
35 `=PATH' suffix to set the root of the tree where readline is installed
38 l. The ksh-like `ERR' trap has been added. The `ERR' trap will be run
39 whenever the shell would have exited if the -e option were enabled.
40 It is not inherited by shell functions.
42 m. `readonly', `export', and `declare' now print variables which have been
43 given attributes but not set by assigning a value as just a command and
44 a variable name (like `export foo') when listing, as the latest POSIX
47 n. `bashbug' now requires that the subject be changed from the default.
49 o. configure has a new `--enable-largefile' option, like other GNU utilities.
51 p. `for' loops now allow empty word lists after `in', like the latest POSIX
54 q. The builtin `ulimit' now takes two new non-numeric arguments: `hard',
55 meaning the current hard limit, and `soft', meaning the current soft
56 limit, in addition to `unlimited'
58 r. `ulimit' now prints the option letter associated with a particular
59 resource when printing more than one limit.
61 s. `ulimit' prints `hard' or `soft' when a value is not `unlimited' but is
62 one of RLIM_SAVED_MAX or RLIM_SAVED_CUR, respectively.
64 t. The `printf' builtin now handles the %a and %A conversions if they're
65 implemented by printf(3).
67 u. The `printf' builtin now handles the %F conversion (just about like %f).
69 v. The `printf' builtin now handles the %n conversion like printf(3). The
70 corresponding argument is the name of a shell variable to which the
73 2. New Features in Readline
75 a. Added extern declaration for rl_get_termcap to readline.h, making it a
76 public function (it was always there, just not in readline.h).
78 b. New #defines in readline.h: RL_READLINE_VERSION, currently 0x0402,
79 RL_VERSION_MAJOR, currently 4, and RL_VERSION_MINOR, currently 2.
81 c. New readline variable: rl_readline_version, mirrors RL_READLINE_VERSION.
83 d. New bindable boolean readline variable: match-hidden-files. Controls
84 completion of files beginning with a `.' (on Unix). Enabled by default.
86 e. The history expansion code now allows any character to terminate a
87 `:first-' modifier, like csh.
89 f. New bindable variable `history-preserve-point'. If set, the history
90 code attempts to place the user at the same location on each history
91 line retrived with previous-history or next-history.
93 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
94 This is a terse description of the new features added to bash-2.05 since
95 the release of bash-2.04. As always, the manual page (doc/bash.1) is
96 the place to look for complete descriptions.
98 1. New Features in Bash
100 a. Added a new `--init-file' invocation argument as a synonym for `--rcfile',
101 per the new GNU coding standards.
103 b. The /dev/tcp and /dev/udp redirections now accept service names as well as
106 c. `complete' and `compgen' now take a `-o value' option, which controls some
107 of the aspects of that compspec. Valid values are:
109 default - perform bash default completion if programmable
110 completion produces no matches
111 dirnames - perform directory name completion if programmable
112 completion produces no matches
113 filenames - tell readline that the compspec produces filenames,
114 so it can do things like append slashes to
115 directory names and suppress trailing spaces
117 d. A new loadable builtin, realpath, which canonicalizes and expands symlinks
118 in pathname arguments.
120 e. When `set' is called without options, it prints function defintions in a
121 way that allows them to be reused as input. This affects `declare' and
122 `declare -p' as well. This only happens when the shell is not in POSIX
123 mode, since POSIX.2 forbids this behavior.
125 f. Bash-2.05 once again honors the current locale setting when processing
126 ranges within pattern matching bracket expressions (e.g., [A-Z]).
128 2. New Features in Readline
130 a. The blink timeout for paren matching is now settable by applications,
131 via the rl_set_paren_blink_timeout() function.
133 b. _rl_executing_macro has been renamed to rl_executing_macro, which means
134 it's now part of the public interface.
136 c. Readline has a new variable, rl_readline_state, which is a bitmap that
137 encapsulates the current state of the library; intended for use by
138 callbacks and hook functions.
140 d. New application-callable function rl_set_prompt(const char *prompt):
141 expands its prompt string argument and sets rl_prompt to the result.
143 e. New application-callable function rl_set_screen_size(int rows, int cols):
144 public method for applications to set readline's idea of the screen
147 f. New function, rl_get_screen_size (int *rows, int *columns), returns
148 readline's idea of the screen dimensions.
150 g. The timeout in rl_gather_tyi (readline keyboard input polling function)
151 is now settable via a function (rl_set_keyboard_input_timeout()).
153 h. Renamed the max_input_history variable to history_max_entries; the old
154 variable is maintained for backwards compatibility.
156 i. The list of characters that separate words for the history tokenizer is
157 now settable with a variable: history_word_delimiters. The default
160 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
161 This is a terse description of the new features added to bash-2.04 since
162 the release of bash-2.03. As always, the manual page (doc/bash.1) is
163 the place to look for complete descriptions.
165 1. New Features in Bash
167 a. The history builtin has a `-d offset' option to delete the history entry
168 at position `offset'.
170 b. The prompt expansion code has two new escape sequences: \j, the number of
171 active jobs; and \l, the basename of the shell's tty device name.
173 c. The `bind' builtin has a new `-x' option to bind key sequences to shell
176 d. There is a new shell option, no_empty_command_completion, which, when
177 enabled, disables command completion when TAB is typed on an empty line.
179 e. The `help' builtin has a `-s' option to just print a builtin's usage
182 f. There are several new arithmetic operators: id++, id-- (variable
183 post-increment/decrement), ++id, --id (variable pre-increment/decrement),
184 expr1 , expr2 (comma operator).
186 g. There is a new ksh-93 style arithmetic for command:
187 for ((expr1 ; expr2; expr3 )); do list; done
189 h. The `read' builtin has a number of new options:
190 -t timeout only wait timeout seconds for input
191 -n nchars only read nchars from input instead of a full line
192 -d delim read until delim rather than newline
193 -s don't echo input chars as they are read
195 i. The redirection code now handles several filenames specially:
196 /dev/fd/N, /dev/stdin, /dev/stdout, and /dev/stderr, whether or
197 not they are present in the file system.
199 j. The redirection code now recognizes pathnames of the form
200 /dev/tcp/host/port and /dev/udp/host/port, and tries to open a socket
201 of the appropriate type to the specified port on the specified host.
203 k. The ksh-93 ${!prefix*} expansion, which expands to the names of all
204 shell variables with prefix PREFIX, has been implemented.
206 l. There is a new dynamic variable, FUNCNAME, which expands to the name of
207 a currently-executing function. Assignments to FUNCNAME have no effect.
209 m. The GROUPS variable is no longer readonly; assignments to it are silently
210 discarded. This means it can be unset.
212 n. A new programmable completion facility, with two new builtin commands:
213 complete and compgen.
215 o. configure has a new option, `--enable-progcomp', to compile in the
216 programmable completion features (enabled by default).
218 p. `shopt' has a new option, `progcomp', to enable and disable programmable
219 completion at runtime.
221 q. Unsetting HOSTFILE now clears the list of hostnames used for completion.
223 r. configure has a new option, `--enable-bash-malloc', replacing the old
224 `--with-gnu-malloc' (which is still present for backwards compatibility).
226 s. There is a new manual page describing rbash, the restricted shell.
228 t. `bashbug' has new `--help' and `--version' options.
230 u. `shopt' has a new `xpg_echo' option, which controls the behavior of
231 `echo' with respect to backslash-escaped characters at runtime.
233 v. If NON_INTERACTIVE_LOGIN_SHELLS is defined, all login shells read the
234 startup files, even if they are not interactive.
236 w. The LC_NUMERIC variable is now treated specially, and used to set the
237 LC_NUMERIC locale category for number formatting, e.g., when `printf'
238 displays floating-point numbers.
240 2. New features in Readline
242 a. Parentheses matching is now always compiled into readline, and enabled
243 or disabled when the value of the `blink-matching-paren' variable is
246 b. MS-DOS systems now use ~/_inputrc as the last-ditch inputrc filename.
248 c. MS-DOS systems now use ~/_history as the default history file.
250 d. history-search-{forward,backward} now leave the point at the end of the
251 line when the string to search for is empty, like
252 {reverse,forward}-search-history.
254 e. history-search-{forward,backward} now leave the last history line found
255 in the readline buffer if the second or subsequent search fails.
257 f. New function for use by applications: rl_on_new_line_with_prompt, used
258 when an application displays the prompt itself before calling readline().
260 g. New variable for use by applications: rl_already_prompted. An application
261 that displays the prompt itself before calling readline() must set this to
264 h. A new variable, rl_gnu_readline_p, always 1. The intent is that an
265 application can verify whether or not it is linked with the `real'
266 readline library or some substitute.
268 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
269 This is a terse description of the new features added to bash-2.03 since
270 the release of bash-2.02. As always, the manual page (doc/bash.1) is
271 the place to look for complete descriptions.
273 1. New Features in Bash
275 a. New `shopt' option, `restricted_shell', indicating whether or not the
276 shell was started in restricted mode, for use in startup files.
278 b. Filename generation is now performed on the words between ( and ) in
279 array assignments (which it probably should have done all along).
281 c. OLDPWD is now auto-exported, as POSIX.2 seems to require.
283 d. ENV and BASH_ENV are read-only variables in a restricted shell.
285 e. A change was made to the startup file code so that any shell begun with
286 the `--login' option, even non-interactive shells, will source the login
289 2. New Features in Readline
291 a. Many changes to the signal handling:
292 o Readline now catches SIGQUIT and cleans up the tty before returning;
293 o A new variable, rl_catch_signals, is available to application writers
294 to indicate to readline whether or not it should install its own
295 signal handlers for SIGINT, SIGTERM, SIGQUIT, SIGALRM, SIGTSTP,
296 SIGTTIN, and SIGTTOU;
297 o A new variable, rl_catch_sigwinch, is available to application
298 writers to indicate to readline whether or not it should install its
299 own signal handler for SIGWINCH, which will chain to the calling
300 applications's SIGWINCH handler, if one is installed;
301 o There is a new function, rl_free_line_state, for application signal
302 handlers to call to free up the state associated with the current
303 line after receiving a signal;
304 o There is a new function, rl_cleanup_after_signal, to clean up the
305 display and terminal state after receiving a signal;
306 o There is a new function, rl_reset_after_signal, to reinitialize the
307 terminal and display state after an application signal handler
308 returns and readline continues
310 b. There is a new function, rl_resize_terminal, to reset readline's idea of
311 the screen size after a SIGWINCH.
313 c. New public functions: rl_save_prompt and rl_restore_prompt. These were
314 previously private functions with a `_' prefix.
316 d. New function hook: rl_pre_input_hook, called just before readline starts
317 reading input, after initialization.
319 e. New function hook: rl_display_matches_hook, called when readline would
320 display the list of completion matches. The new function
321 rl_display_match_list is what readline uses internally, and is available
322 for use by application functions called via this hook.
324 f. New bindable function, delete-char-or-list, like tcsh.
326 g. A new variable, rl_erase_empty_line, which, if set by an application using
327 readline, will cause readline to erase, prompt and all, lines on which the
328 only thing typed was a newline.
330 h. New bindable variable: `isearch-terminators'.
332 i. New bindable function: `forward-backward-delete-char' (unbound by default).
334 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
335 This is a terse description of the new features added to bash-2.02 since
336 the release of bash-2.01.1. As always, the manual page (doc/bash.1) is
337 the place to look for complete descriptions.
339 1. New Features in Bash
341 a. A new version of malloc, based on the older GNU malloc, that has many
342 changes, is more page-based, is more conservative with memory usage,
343 and does not `orphan' large blocks when they are freed.
345 b. A new version of gmalloc, based on the old GLIBC malloc, with many
346 changes and range checking included by default.
348 c. A new implementation of fnmatch(3) that includes full POSIX.2 Basic
349 Regular Expression matching, including character classes, collating
350 symbols, equivalence classes, and support for case-insensitive pattern
353 d. ksh-88 egrep-style extended pattern matching ([@+*?!](patlist)) has been
354 implemented, controlled by a new `shopt' option, `extglob'.
356 e. There is a new ksh-like `[[' compound command, which implements
357 extended `test' functionality.
359 f. There is a new `printf' builtin, implemented according to the POSIX.2
362 g. There is a new feature for command substitution: $(< filename) now expands
363 to the contents of `filename', with any trailing newlines removed
364 (equivalent to $(cat filename)).
366 h. There are new tilde prefixes which expand to directories from the
369 i. There is a new `**' arithmetic operator to do exponentiation.
371 j. There are new configuration options to control how bash is linked:
372 `--enable-profiling', to allow bash to be profiled with gprof, and
373 `--enable-static-link', to allow bash to be linked statically.
375 k. There is a new configuration option, `--enable-cond-command', which
376 controls whether or not the `[[' command is included. It is on by
379 l. There is a new configuration option, `--enable-extended-glob', which
380 controls whether or not the ksh extended globbing feature is included.
381 It is enabled by default.
383 m. There is a new configuration #define in config.h.top that, when enabled,
384 will cause all login shells to source /etc/profile and one of the user-
385 specific login shell startup files, whether or not the shell is
388 n. There is a new invocation option, `--dump-po-strings', to dump
389 a shell script's translatable strings ($"...") in GNU `po' format.
391 o. There is a new `shopt' option, `nocaseglob', to enable case-insensitive
392 pattern matching when globbing filenames and using the `case' construct.
394 p. There is a new `shopt' option, `huponexit', which, when enabled, causes
395 the shell to send SIGHUP to all jobs when an interactive login shell
398 q. `bind' has a new `-u' option, which takes a readline function name as an
399 argument and unbinds all key sequences bound to that function in a
402 r. `disown' now has `-a' and `-r' options, to limit operation to all jobs
403 and running jobs, respectively.
405 s. The `shopt' `-p' option now causes output to be displayed in a reusable
408 t. `test' has a new `-N' option, which returns true if the filename argument
409 has been modified since it was last accessed.
411 u. `umask' now has a `-p' option to print output in a reusable format.
413 v. A new escape sequence, `\xNNN', has been added to the `echo -e' and $'...'
414 translation code. It expands to the character whose ascii code is NNN
417 w. The prompt string expansion code has a new `\r' escape sequence.
419 x. The shell may now be cross-compiled for the CYGWIN32 environment on
422 2. New Features in Readline
424 a. There is now an option for `iterative' yank-last-arg handline, so a user
425 can keep entering `M-.', yanking the last argument of successive history
428 b. New variable, `print-completions-horizontally', which causes completion
429 matches to be displayed across the screen (like `ls -x') rather than up
430 and down the screen (like `ls').
432 c. New variable, `completion-ignore-case', which causes filename completion
433 and matching to be performed case-insensitively.
435 d. There is a new bindable command, `magic-space', which causes history
436 expansion to be performed on the current readline buffer and a space to
437 be inserted into the result.
439 e. There is a new bindable command, `menu-complete', which enables tcsh-like
440 menu completion (successive executions of menu-complete insert a single
441 completion match, cycling through the list of possible completions).
443 f. There is a new bindable command, `paste-from-clipboard', for use on Win32
444 systems, to insert the text from the Win32 clipboard into the editing
447 g. The key sequence translation code now understands printf-style backslash
448 escape sequences, including \NNN octal escapes. These escape sequences
449 may be used in key sequence definitions or macro values.
451 h. An `$include' inputrc file parser directive has been added.
453 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
454 This is a terse description of the new features added to bash-2.01 since
455 the release of bash-2.0. As always, the manual page (doc/bash.1) is the
456 place to look for complete descriptions.
458 1. New Features in Bash
460 a. There is a new builtin array variable: GROUPS, the set of groups to which
461 the user belongs. This is used by the test suite.
463 2. New Features in Readline
465 a. If a key sequence bound to `universal-argument' is read while reading a
466 numeric argument started with `universal-argument', it terminates the
467 argument but is otherwise ignored. This provides a way to insert multiple
468 instances of a digit string, and is how GNU emacs does it.
470 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
471 This is a terse description of the new features added to bash-2.0 since
472 the release of bash-1.14.7. As always, the manual page (doc/bash.1) is
473 the place to look for complete descriptions.
475 1. New Features in Bash
477 a. There is a new invocation option, -D, that dumps translatable strings
480 b. The `long' invocation options must now be prefixed with `--'.
482 c. New long invocation options: --dump-strings, --help, --verbose
484 d. The `nolineediting' invocation option was renamed to `noediting'.
486 e. The `nobraceexpansion' and `quiet' long invocation options were removed.
488 f. The `--help' and `--version' long options now work as the GNU coding
491 g. If invoked as `sh', bash now enters posix mode after reading the
492 startup files, and reads and executes commands from the file named
493 by $ENV if interactive (as POSIX.2 specifies). A login shell invoked
494 as `sh' reads $ENV after /etc/profile and ~/.profile.
496 h. There is a new reserved word, `time', for timing pipelines, builtin
497 commands, and shell functions. It uses the value of the TIMEFORMAT
498 variable as a format string describing how to print the timing
501 i. The $'...' quoting syntax expands ANSI-C escapes in ... and leaves the
502 result single-quoted.
504 j. The $"..." quoting syntax performs locale-specific translation of ...
505 and leaves the result double-quoted.
507 k. LINENO now works correctly in functions.
509 l. New variables: DIRSTACK, PIPESTATUS, BASH_VERSINFO, HOSTNAME, SHELLOPTS,
510 MACHTYPE. The first three are array variables.
512 m. The BASH_VERSION and BASH_VERSINFO variables now include the shell's
513 `release status' (alpha[N], beta[N], release).
515 n. Some variables have been removed: MAIL_WARNING, notify, history_control,
516 command_oriented_history, glob_dot_filenames, allow_null_glob_expansion,
517 nolinks, hostname_completion_file, noclobber, no_exit_on_failed_exec, and
518 cdable_vars. Most of them are now implemented with the new `shopt'
519 builtin; others were already implemented by `set'.
521 o. Bash now uses some new variables: LC_ALL, LC_MESSAGES, LC_CTYPE,
522 LC_COLLATE, LANG, GLOBIGNORE, HISTIGNORE.
524 p. The shell now supports integer-indexed arrays of unlimited length,
525 with a new compound assignment syntax and changes to the appropriate
526 builtin commands (declare/typeset, read, readonly, etc.). The array
527 index may be an arithmetic expression.
529 q. ${!var}: indirect variable expansion, equivalent to eval \${$var}.
531 r. ${paramter:offset[:length]}: variable substring extraction.
533 s. ${parameter/pattern[/[/]string]}: variable pattern substitution.
535 t. The $[...] arithmetic expansion syntax is no longer supported, in
538 u. Aliases can now be expanded in shell scripts with a shell option
539 (shopt expand_aliases).
541 v. History and history expansion can now be used in scripts with
542 set -o history and set -H.
544 w. All builtins now return an exit status of 2 for incorrect usage.
546 x. Interactive shells resend SIGHUP to all running or stopped children
547 if (and only if) they exit due to a SIGHUP.
549 y. New prompting expansions: \a, \e, \H, \T, \@, \v, \V.
551 z. Variable expansion in prompt strings is now controllable via a shell
552 option (shopt promptvars).
554 aa. Bash now defaults to using command-oriented history.
556 bb. The history file ($HISTFILE) is now truncated to $HISTFILESIZE after
559 cc. The POSIX.2 conditional arithmetic evaluation syntax (expr ? expr : expr)
560 has been implemented.
562 dd. Each builtin now accepts `--' to signify the end of the options, except
563 as documented (echo, etc.).
565 ee. All builtins use -p to display values in a re-readable format where
566 appropriate, except as documented (echo, type, etc.).
568 ff. The `alias' builtin has a new -p option.
570 gg. Changes to the `bind' builtin:
571 o has new options: -psPSVr.
572 o the `-d' option was renamed to `-p'
573 o the `-v' option now dumps variables; the old `-v' is now `-P'
575 hh. The `bye' synonym for `exit' was removed.
577 ii. The -L and -P options to `cd' and `pwd' have been documented.
579 jj. The `cd' builtin now does spelling correction on the directory name
580 by default. This is settable with a shell option (shopt cdspell).
582 kk. The `declare' builtin has new options: -a, -F, -p.
584 ll. The `dirs' builtin has new options: -c, -p, -v.
586 mm. The new `disown' builtin removes jobs from the shell's jobs table
587 or inhibits the resending of SIGHUP when the shell receives a
590 nn. The `echo' builtin has a new escape character: \e.
592 oo. The `enable' builtin can now load new builtins dynamically from shared
593 objects on systems with the dlopen/dlsym interface. There are a number
594 of examples in the examples/loadables directory. There are also
595 new options: -d, -f, -s, -p.
597 pp. The `-all' option to `enable' was removed in favor of `-a'.
599 qq. The `exec' builtin has new options: -l, -c, -a.
601 rr. The `hash' builtin has a new option: -p.
603 ss. The `history' builtin has new options: -c, -p, -s.
605 tt. The `jobs' builtin has new options: -r, -s.
607 uu. The `kill' builtin has new options: -n signum, -l signame.
609 vv. The `pushd' and `popd' builtins have a new option: -n.
611 ww. The `read' builtin has new options: -p prompt, -e, -a.
613 xx. The `readonly' builtin has a new -a option, and the -n option was removed.
615 yy. Changes to the `set' builtin:
616 o new options: -B, -o keyword, -o onecmd, -o history
617 o options removed: -l, -d, -o nohash
618 o options changed: +o, -h, -o hashall
619 o now displays variables in a format that can be re-read as input
621 zz. The new `shopt' builtin controls shell optional behavior previously
622 done by setting and unsetting certain shell variables.
624 aaa. The `test' builtin has new operators: -o option, s1 == s2, s1 < s2,
625 and s1 > s2, where s1 and s2 are strings.
627 bbb. There is a new trap, DEBUG, executed after every simple command.
629 ccc. The `trap' builtin has a new -p option.
631 ddd. The `ulimit' builtin has a new -l option on 4.4BSD-based systems.
633 eee. The PS1, PS2, PATH, and IFS variables may now be unset.
635 fff. The restricted shell mode has been expanded and is now documented.
637 ggg. Security improvements:
638 o functions are not imported from the environment if running setuid
640 o no startup files are sourced if running setuid or with -p
642 hhh. The documentation has been overhauled: the texinfo manual was
643 expanded, and HTML versions of the man page and texinfo manual
646 iii. Changes to Posix mode:
647 o Command lookup now finds special builtins before shell functions.
648 o Failure of a special builtin causes a non-interactive shell to
649 exit. Failures are defined in the POSIX.2 specification.
650 o If the `cd' builtin finds a directory to change to using $CDPATH,
651 the value assigned to PWD when `cd' completes does not contain
653 o A non-interactive shell exits if a variable assignment error
654 occurs when no command name follows the assignment statements.
655 o A non-interactive shell exits if the interation variable in a
656 `for' statement or the selection variable in a `select' statement
657 is read-only or another variable assignment error occurs.
658 o The `<>' redirection operator now opens a file for both stdin and
659 stdout by default, not just when in posix mode.
660 o Assignment statements preceding special builtins now persist in
661 the shell's environment when the builtin completes.
663 Posix mode is now completely POSIX.2-compliant (modulo bugs). When
664 invoked as sh, bash should be completely POSIX.2-compliant.
666 jjj. The default value of PS1 is now "\s-\v\$ ".
668 kkk. The ksh-like ((...)) arithmetic command syntax has been implemented.
669 This is exactly equivalent to `let "..."'.
671 lll. Integer constants have been extended to base 64.
673 mmm. The `ulimit' builtin now sets both hard and soft limits and reports the
674 soft limit by default.
676 2. New Features in Readline
678 a. New variables: enable-keypad, input-meta (new name for meta-flag),
679 mark-directories, visible-stats (now documented), disable-completion,
682 b. New bindable commands: kill-region, copy-region-as-kill,
683 copy-backward-word, copy-forward-word, set-mark, exchange-point-and-mark,
684 character-search, character-search-backward, insert-comment,
685 glob-expand-word, glob-list-expansions, dump-variables, dump-macros.
687 c. New emacs keybindings: delete-horizontal-space (M-\),
688 insert-completions (M-*), possible-completions (M-=).
690 d. The history-search-backward and history-search-forward commands were
691 modified to be the same as previous-line and next-line if point is at
692 the start of the line.
694 e. More file types are available for the visible-stats mode.
696 3. Changes of interest in the Bash implementation
698 a. There is a new autoconf-based configuration mechanism.
700 b. More things have been moved from Posix mode to standard shell behavior.
702 c. The trace output (set -x) now inserts quotes where necessary so it can
705 d. There is a compile-time option for a system-wide interactive shell
706 startup file (disabled by default).
708 e. The YACC grammar is smaller and tighter, and all 66 shift-reduce
709 conflicts are gone. Several parsing bugs have been fixed.
711 f. Builtin option parsing has been regularized (using internal_getopt()),
712 with the exception of `echo', `type', and `set'.
714 g. Builtins now return standard usage messages constructed from the
715 `short doc' used by the help builtin.
717 h. Completion now quotes using backslashes by default, but honors
718 user-supplied quotes.
720 i. The GNU libc malloc is available as a configure-time option.
722 j. There are more internationalization features; bash uses gettext if
723 it is available. The $"..." translation syntax uses the current
726 k. There is better reporting of job termination when the shell is not
729 l. The shell is somewhat more efficient: it uses a little less memory and
730 makes fewer system calls.
732 4. Changes of interest in the Readline implementation
734 a. There is now support for readline `callback' functions.
736 b. There is now support for user-supplied input, redisplay, and terminal
737 preparation functions.
739 c. Most of the shell-specific code in readline has been generalized or
742 d. Most of the annoying redisplay bugs have been fixed, notably the problems
743 with incremental search and excessive redrawing when special characters
744 appear in the prompt string.
746 e. There are new library functions and variables available to application
747 writers, most having to do with completion and quoting.
749 f. The NEWLINE character (^J) is now treated as a search terminator by the
750 incremental search functions.