There are only a few basic constructs allowed in the
Readline init file. Blank lines are ignored.
Lines beginning with a #
are comments.
Lines beginning with a $
indicate conditional
constructs (see Conditional Init Constructs). Other lines
denote variable settings and key bindings.
set
command within the init file. Here is how to
change from the default Emacs-like key binding to use
vi
line editing commands:
set editing-mode vi
A great deal of run-time behavior is changeable with the following variables.
bell-style
none
, Readline never rings the bell. If set to
visible
, Readline uses a visible bell if one is available.
If set to audible
(the default), Readline attempts to ring
the terminal's bell.
comment-begin
insert-comment
command is executed. The default value
is "#"
.
completion-ignore-case
on
, Readline performs filename matching and completion
in a case-insensitive fashion.
The default value is off
.
completion-query-items
100
.
convert-meta
on
, Readline will convert characters with the
eighth bit set to an ASCII key sequence by stripping the eighth
bit and prefixing an <ESC> character, converting them to a
meta-prefixed key sequence. The default value is on
.
disable-completion
On
, Readline will inhibit word completion.
Completion characters will be inserted into the line as if they had
been mapped to self-insert
. The default is off
.
editing-mode
editing-mode
variable controls which default set of
key bindings is used. By default, Readline starts up in Emacs editing
mode, where the keystrokes are most similar to Emacs. This variable can be
set to either emacs
or vi
.
enable-keypad
on
, Readline will try to enable the application
keypad when it is called. Some systems need this to enable the
arrow keys. The default is off
.
expand-tilde
on
, tilde expansion is performed when Readline
attempts word completion. The default is off
.
horizontal-scroll-mode
on
or off
. Setting it
to on
means that the text of the lines being edited will scroll
horizontally on a single screen line when they are longer than the width
of the screen, instead of wrapping onto a new screen line. By default,
this variable is set to off
.
input-meta
on
, Readline will enable eight-bit input (it
will not strip the eighth bit from the characters it reads),
regardless of what the terminal claims it can support. The
default value is off
. The name meta-flag
is a
synonym for this variable.
isearch-terminators
keymap
keymap
names are
emacs
,
emacs-standard
,
emacs-meta
,
emacs-ctlx
,
vi
,
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 the editing-mode
variable also affects the
default keymap.
mark-directories
on
, completed directory names have a slash
appended. The default is on
.
mark-modified-lines
on
, causes Readline to display an
asterisk (*
) at the start of history lines which have been modified.
This variable is off
by default.
output-meta
on
, Readline will display characters with the
eighth bit set directly rather than as a meta-prefixed escape
sequence. The default is off
.
print-completions-horizontally
on
, Readline will display completions with matches
sorted horizontally in alphabetical order, rather than down the screen.
The default is off
.
show-all-if-ambiguous
on
,
words which have more than one possible completion cause the
matches to be listed immediately instead of ringing the bell.
The default value is off
.
visible-stats
on
, a character denoting a file's type
is appended to the filename when listing possible
completions. The default is off
.
Once you know the name of the command, simply place the name of the key you wish to bind the command to, a colon, and then the name of the command on a line in the init file. The name of the key can be expressed in different ways, depending on which is most comfortable for you.
Control-u: universal-argument Meta-Rubout: backward-kill-word Control-o: "> output"
In the above example, <C-u> is bound to the function
universal-argument
, and <C-o> is bound to run the macro
expressed on the right hand side (that is, to insert the text
> output
into the line).
"\C-u": universal-argument "\C-x\C-r": re-read-init-file "\e[11~": "Function Key 1"
In the above example, <C-u> is bound to the function
universal-argument
(just as it was in the first example),
<C-x> <C-r>
is bound to the function re-read-init-file
,
and <ESC> <[> <1> <1> <~>
is bound to insert
the text Function Key 1
.
The following GNU Emacs style escape sequences are available when specifying key sequences:
\C-
\M-
\e
\\
\"
\'
In addition to the GNU Emacs style escape sequences, a second set of backslash escapes is available:
\a
\b
\d
\f
\n
\r
\t
\v
\
nnn
ASCII
code is the octal value nnn
(one to three digits)
\x
nnn
ASCII
code is the hexadecimal value nnn
(one to three digits)
When entering the text of a macro, single or double quotes must
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 '
.
For example, the following binding will make C-x \
insert a single \
into the line:
"\C-x\\": "\\"