Imported from ../bash-2.05.tar.gz.

[thirdparty/bash.git] / NEWS

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+This is a terse description of the new features added to bash-2.05 since
+the release of bash-2.04.  As always, the manual page (doc/bash.1) is
+the place to look for complete descriptions.
+
+1.  New Features in Bash
+
+a.  Added a new `--init-file' invocation argument as a synonym for `--rcfile',
+    per the new GNU coding standards.
+
+b.  The /dev/tcp and /dev/udp redirections now accept service names as well as
+    port numbers.
+
+c.  `complete' and `compgen' now take a `-o value' option, which controls some
+    of the aspects of that compspec.  Valid values are:
+
+        default - perform bash default completion if programmable
+                  completion produces no matches
+        dirnames - perform directory name completion if programmable
+                   completion produces no matches
+        filenames - tell readline that the compspec produces filenames,
+                    so it can do things like append slashes to
+                    directory names and suppress trailing spaces
+
+d.  A new loadable builtin, realpath, which canonicalizes and expands symlinks
+    in pathname arguments.
+    
+e.  When `set' is called without options, it prints function defintions in a
+    way that allows them to be reused as input.  This affects `declare' and 
+    `declare -p' as well.  This only happens when the shell is not in POSIX
+    mode, since POSIX.2 forbids this behavior.
+
+f.  Bash-2.05 once again honors the current locale setting when processing
+    ranges within pattern matching bracket expressions (e.g., [A-Z]).
+
+2.  New Features in Readline
+
+a.  The blink timeout for paren matching is now settable by applications,
+    via the rl_set_paren_blink_timeout() function.
+
+b.  _rl_executing_macro has been renamed to rl_executing_macro, which means
+    it's now part of the public interface.
+
+c.  Readline has a new variable, rl_readline_state, which is a bitmap that
+    encapsulates the current state of the library; intended for use by
+    callbacks and hook functions.
+
+d.  New application-callable function rl_set_prompt(const char *prompt):
+    expands its prompt string argument and sets rl_prompt to the result.
+
+e.  New application-callable function rl_set_screen_size(int rows, int cols):
+    public method for applications to set readline's idea of the screen
+    dimensions.
+
+f.  New function, rl_get_screen_size (int *rows, int *columns), returns
+    readline's idea of the screen dimensions.
+
+g.  The timeout in rl_gather_tyi (readline keyboard input polling function)
+    is now settable via a function (rl_set_keyboard_input_timeout()).
+
+h.  Renamed the max_input_history variable to history_max_entries; the old
+    variable is maintained for backwards compatibility.
+
+i.  The list of characters that separate words for the history tokenizer is
+    now settable with a variable:  history_word_delimiters.  The default
+    value is as before.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 This is a terse description of the new features added to bash-2.04 since
 the release of bash-2.03.  As always, the manual page (doc/bash.1) is
 the place to look for complete descriptions.