In addition to the GNU Emacs style escape sequences, a second set of backslash escapes is available:
When entering the text of a macro, single or double quotes should be used to indicate a macro definition. Unquoted text is assumed to be a function name. In the macro body, the backslash escapes described above are expanded. Backslash will quote any other character in the macro text, including " and ’.
| bell-style (audible) |
| | Controls what happens when readline wants to ring the terminal bell. If set to none, readline never rings the bell. If set to visible, readline uses a visible bell if one is available. If set to audible, readline attempts to ring the terminal’s bell. |
| comment-begin (‘‘#’’) |
| | The string that is inserted in vi mode when the insert-comment command is executed. This command is bound to M-# in emacs mode and to # in vi command mode. |
| completion-ignore-case (Off) |
| | If set to On, readline performs filename matching and completion in a case-insensitive fashion. |
| completion-query-items (100) |
| | This determines when the user is queried about viewing the number of possible completions generated by the possible-completions command. It may be set to any integer value greater than or equal to zero. If the number of possible completions is greater than or equal to the value of this variable, the user is asked whether or not he wishes to view them; otherwise they are simply listed on the terminal. |
| convert-meta (On) |
| | If set to On, readline will convert characters with the eighth bit set to an ASCII key sequence by stripping the eighth bit and prefixing it with an escape character (in effect, using escape as the meta prefix). |
| disable-completion (Off) |
| | If set to On, readline will inhibit word completion. Completion characters will be inserted into the line as if they had been mapped to self-insert. |
| editing-mode (emacs) |
| | Controls whether readline begins with a set of key bindings similar to emacs or vi. editing-mode can be set to either emacs or vi. |
| enable-keypad (Off) |
| | When set to On, readline will try to enable the application keypad when it is called. Some systems need this to enable the arrow keys. |
| expand-tilde (Off) |
| | If set to on, tilde expansion is performed when readline attempts word completion. |
| history-preserve-point |
| | If set to on, the history code attempts to place point at the same location on each history line retrived with previous-history or next-history. |
| horizontal-scroll-mode (Off) |
| | When set to On, makes readline use a single line for display, scrolling the input horizontally on a single screen line when it becomes longer than the screen width rather than wrapping to a new line. |
| input-meta (Off) |
| | If set to On, readline will enable eight-bit input (that is, it will not clear the eighth bit in the characters it reads), regardless of what the terminal claims it can support. The name meta-flag is a synonym for this variable. |
| isearch-terminators (‘‘C-[ C-J’’) |
| | The string of characters that should terminate an incremental search without subsequently executing the character as a command. If this variable has not been given a value, the characters ESC and C-J will terminate an incremental search. |
| keymap (emacs) |
| | Set the current readline keymap. The set of legal keymap names is emacs, emacs-standard, emacs-meta, emacs-ctlx, vi, vi-move, vi-command, and vi-insert. vi is equivalent to vi-command; emacs is equivalent to emacs-standard. The default value is emacs. The value of editing-mode also affects the default keymap. |
| mark-directories (On) |
| | If set to On, completed directory names have a slash appended. |
| mark-modified-lines (Off) |
| | If set to On, history lines that have been modified are displayed with a preceding asterisk (*). |
| mark-symlinked-directories (Off) |
| | If set to On, completed names which are symbolic links to directories have a slash appended (subject to the value of mark-directories). |
| match-hidden-files (On) |
| | This variable, when set to On, causes readline to match files whose names begin with a ‘.’ (hidden files) when performing filename completion, unless the leading ‘.’ is supplied by the user in the filename to be completed. |
| output-meta (Off) |
| | If set to On, readline will display characters with the eighth bit set directly rather than as a meta-prefixed escape sequence. |
| page-completions (On) |
| | If set to On, readline uses an internal more-like pager to display a screenful of possible completions at a time. |
| print-completions-horizontally (Off) |
| | If set to On, readline will display completions with matches sorted horizontally in alphabetical order, rather than down the screen. |
| show-all-if-ambiguous (Off) |
| | This alters the default behavior of the completion functions. If set to on, words which have more than one possible completion cause the matches to be listed immediately instead of ringing the bell. |
| show-all-if-unmodified (Off) |
| | This alters the default behavior of the completion functions in a fashion similar to show-all-if-ambiguous. If set to on, words which have more than one possible completion without any possible partial completion (the possible completions don’t share a common prefix) cause the matches to be listed immediately instead of ringing the bell. |
| visible-stats (Off) |
| | If set to On, a character denoting a file’s type as reported by stat(2) is appended to the filename when listing possible completions. |
|
SEARCHING
Readline provides commands for searching through the command history for lines containing a specified string. There are two search modes: incremental and non-incremental.
Incremental searches begin before the user has finished typing the search string. As each character of the search string is typed, readline displays the next entry from the history matching the string typed so far. An incremental search requires only as many characters as needed to find the desired history entry. To search backward in the history for a particular string, type C-r. Typing C-s searches forward through the history. The characters present in the value of the isearch-terminators variable are used to terminate an incremental search. If that variable has not been assigned a value the Escape and C-J characters will terminate an incremental search. C-G will abort an incremental search and restore the original line. When the search is terminated, the history entry containing the search string becomes the current line.
To find other matching entries in the history list, type C-s or C-r as appropriate. This will search backward or forward in the history for the next line matching the search string typed so far. Any other key sequence bound to a readline command will terminate the search and execute that command. For instance, a newline will terminate the search and accept the line, thereby executing the command from the history list. A movement command will terminate the search, make the last line found the current line, and begin editing.
Non-incremental searches read the entire search string before starting to search for matching history lines. The search string may be typed by the user or be part of the contents of the current line.
EDITING COMMANDS
The following is a list of the names of the commands and the default key sequences to which they are bound. Command names without an accompanying key sequence are unbound by default.
In the following descriptions, point refers to the current cursor position, and mark refers to a cursor position saved by the set-mark command. The text between the point and mark is referred to as the region.
Commands for Moving
| accept-line (Newline, Return) |
| | Accept the line regardless of where the cursor is. If this line is non-empty, it may be added to the history list for future recall with add_history(). If the line is a modified history line, the history line is restored to its original state. |
| previous-history (C-p) |
| | Fetch the previous command from the history list, moving back in the list. |
| next-history (C-n) |
| | Fetch the next command from the history list, moving forward in the list. |
| beginning-of-history (M-<) |
| | Move to the first line in the history. |
| end-of-history (M->) |
| | Move to the end of the input history, i.e., the line currently being entered. |
| reverse-search-history (C-r) |
| | Search backward starting at the current line and moving ‘up’ through the history as necessary. This is an incremental search. |
| forward-search-history (C-s) |
| | Search forward starting at the current line and moving ‘down’ through the history as necessary. This is an incremental search. |
| non-incremental-reverse-search-history (M-p) |
| | Search backward through the history starting at the current line using a non-incremental search for a string supplied by the user. |
| non-incremental-forward-search-history (M-n) |
| | Search forward through the history using a non-incremental search for a string supplied by the user. |
| history-search-forward |
| | Search forward through the history for the string of characters between the start of the current line and the current cursor position (the point). This is a non-incremental search. |
| history-search-backward |
| | Search backward through the history for the string of characters between the start of the current line and the point. This is a non-incremental search. |
| yank-nth-arg (M-C-y) |
| | Insert the first argument to the previous command (usually the second word on the previous line) at point. With an argument n, insert the nth word from the previous command (the words in the previous command begin with word 0). A negative argument inserts the nth word from the end of the previous command. |
| | yank-last-arg (M-., M-_) Insert the last argument to the previous command (the last word of the previous history entry). With an argument, behave exactly like yank-nth-arg. Successive calls to yank-last-arg move back through the history list, inserting the last argument of each line in turn. |
|
| delete-char (C-d) |
| | Delete the character at point. If point is at the beginning of the line, there are no characters in the line, and the last character typed was not bound to delete-char, then return EOF. |
| backward-delete-char (Rubout) |
| | Delete the character behind the cursor. When given a numeric argument, save the deleted text on the kill ring. |
| forward-backward-delete-char |
| | Delete the character under the cursor, unless the cursor is at the end of the line, in which case the character behind the cursor is deleted. |
| quoted-insert (C-q, C-v) |
| | Add the next character that you type to the line verbatim. This is how to insert characters like C-q, for example. |
| tab-insert (M-TAB) |
| | Insert a tab character. |
| self-insert (a, b, A, 1, !, ...) |
| | Insert the character typed. |
| transpose-chars (C-t) |
| | Drag the character before point forward over the character at point, moving point forward as well. If point is at the end of the line, then this transposes the two characters before point. Negative arguments have no effect. |
| transpose-words (M-t) |
| | Drag the word before point past the word after point, moving point over that word as well. If point is at the end of the line, this transposes the last two words on the line. |
| upcase-word (M-u) |
| | Uppercase the current (or following) word. With a negative argument, uppercase the previous word, but do not move point. |
| downcase-word (M-l) |
| | Lowercase the current (or following) word. With a negative argument, lowercase the previous word, but do not move point. |
| capitalize-word (M-c) |
| | Capitalize the current (or following) word. With a negative argument, capitalize the previous word, but do not move point. |
| overwrite-mode |
| | Toggle overwrite mode. With an explicit positive numeric argument, switches to overwrite mode. With an explicit non-positive numeric argument, switches to insert mode. This command affects only emacs mode; vi mode does overwrite differently. Each call to readline() starts in insert mode. In overwrite mode, characters bound to self-insert replace the text at point rather than pushing the text to the right. Characters bound to backward-delete-char replace the character before point with a space. By default, this command is unbound. |
|
| kill-line (C-k) |
| | Kill the text from point to the end of the line. |
| backward-kill-line (C-x Rubout) |
| | Kill backward to the beginning of the line. |
| unix-line-discard (C-u) |
| | Kill backward from point to the beginning of the line. The killed text is saved on the kill-ring. |
| kill-whole-line |
| | Kill all characters on the current line, no matter where point is. |
| kill-word (M-d) |
| | Kill from point the end of the current word, or if between words, to the end of the next word. Word boundaries are the same as those used by forward-word. |
| backward-kill-word (M-Rubout) |
| | Kill the word behind point. Word boundaries are the same as those used by backward-word. |
| unix-word-rubout (C-w) |
| | Kill the word behind point, using white space as a word boundary. The killed text is saved on the kill-ring. |
| unix-filename-rubout |
| | Kill the word behind point, using white space and the slash character as the word boundaries. The killed text is saved on the kill-ring. |
| delete-horizontal-space (M-\) |
| | Delete all spaces and tabs around point. |
| kill-region |
| | Kill the text between the point and mark (saved cursor position). This text is referred to as the region. |
| copy-region-as-kill |
| | Copy the text in the region to the kill buffer. |
| copy-backward-word |
| | Copy the word before point to the kill buffer. The word boundaries are the same as backward-word. |
| copy-forward-word |
| | Copy the word following point to the kill buffer. The word boundaries are the same as forward-word. |
| yank (C-y) |
| | Yank the top of the kill ring into the buffer at point. |
| yank-pop (M-y) |
| | Rotate the kill ring, and yank the new top. Only works following yank or yank-pop. |
|
| complete (TAB) |
| | Attempt to perform completion on the text before point. The actual completion performed is application-specific. Bash, for instance, attempts completion treating the text as a variable (if the text begins with $), username (if the text begins with ~), hostname (if the text begins with @), or command (including aliases and functions) in turn. If none of these produces a match, filename completion is attempted. Gdb, on the other hand, allows completion of program functions and variables, and only attempts filename completion under certain circumstances. |
| possible-completions (M-?) |
| | List the possible completions of the text before point. |
| insert-completions (M-*) |
| | Insert all completions of the text before point that would have been generated by possible-completions. |
| menu-complete |
| | Similar to complete, but replaces the word to be completed with a single match from the list of possible completions. Repeated execution of menu-complete steps through the list of possible completions, inserting each match in turn. At the end of the list of completions, the bell is rung (subject to the setting of bell-style) and the original text is restored. An argument of n moves n positions forward in the list of matches; a negative argument may be used to move backward through the list. This command is intended to be bound to TAB, but is unbound by default. |
| delete-char-or-list |
| | Deletes the character under the cursor if not at the beginning or end of the line (like delete-char). If at the end of the line, behaves identically to possible-completions. |
|
| re-read-init-file (C-x C-r) |
| | Read in the contents of the inputrc file, and incorporate any bindings or variable assignments found there. |
| abort (C-g) |
| | Abort the current editing command and ring the terminal’s bell (subject to the setting of bell-style). |
| do-uppercase-version (M-a, M-b, M-x, ...) |
| | If the metafied character x is lowercase, run the command that is bound to the corresponding uppercase character. |
| prefix-meta (ESC) |
| | Metafy the next character typed. ESC f is equivalent to Meta-f. |
| undo (C-_, C-x C-u) |
| | Incremental undo, separately remembered for each line. |
| revert-line (M-r) |
| | Undo all changes made to this line. This is like executing the undo command enough times to return the line to its initial state. |
| tilde-expand (M-&) |
| | Perform tilde expansion on the current word. |
| set-mark (C-@, M-<space>) |
| | Set the mark to the point. If a numeric argument is supplied, the mark is set to that position. |
| exchange-point-and-mark (C-x C-x) |
| | Swap the point with the mark. The current cursor position is set to the saved position, and the old cursor position is saved as the mark. |
| character-search (C-]) |
| | A character is read and point is moved to the next occurrence of that character. A negative count searches for previous occurrences. |
| character-search-backward (M-C-]) |
| | A character is read and point is moved to the previous occurrence of that character. A negative count searches for subsequent occurrences. |
| insert-comment (M-#) |
| | Without a numeric argument, the value of the readline comment-begin variable is inserted at the beginning of the current line. If a numeric argument is supplied, this command acts as a toggle: if the characters at the beginning of the line do not match the value of comment-begin, the value is inserted, otherwise the characters in comment-begin are deleted from the beginning of the line. In either case, the line is accepted as if a newline had been typed. The default value of comment-begin makes the current line a shell comment. If a numeric argument causes the comment character to be removed, the line will be executed by the shell. |
| dump-functions |
| | Print all of the functions and their key bindings to the readline output stream. If a numeric argument is supplied, the output is formatted in such a way that it can be made part of an inputrc file. |
| dump-variables |
| | Print all of the settable variables and their values to the readline output stream. If a numeric argument is supplied, the output is formatted in such a way that it can be made part of an inputrc file. |
| dump-macros |
| | Print all of the readline key sequences bound to macros and the strings they output. If a numeric argument is supplied, the output is formatted in such a way that it can be made part of an inputrc file. |
| emacs-editing-mode (C-e) |
| | When in vi command mode, this causes a switch to emacs editing mode. |
| vi-editing-mode (M-C-j) |
| | When in emacs editing mode, this causes a switch to vi editing mode. |
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