history
HISTORY(3) HISTORY(3)
NAME
history - GNU History Library
COPYRIGHT
The GNU History Library is Copyright (C) 1989-2002 by the Free Soft-
ware Foundation, Inc.
DESCRIPTION
Many programs read input from the user a line at a time. The GNU His-
tory library is able to keep track of those lines, associate arbitrary
data with each line, and utilize information from previous lines in
composing new ones.
HISTORY EXPANSION
The history library supports a history expansion feature that is iden-
tical to the history expansion in bash. This section describes what
syntax features are available.
History expansions introduce words from the history list into the
input stream, making it easy to repeat commands, insert the arguments
to a previous command into the current input line, or fix errors in
previous commands quickly.
History expansion is usually performed immediately after a complete
line is read. It takes place in two parts. The first is to determine
which line from the history list to use during substitution. The sec-
ond is to select portions of that line for inclusion into the current
one. The line selected from the history is the event, and the por-
tions of that line that are acted upon are words. Various modifiers
are available to manipulate the selected words. The line is broken
into words in the same fashion as bash does when reading input, so
that several words that would otherwise be separated are considered
one word when surrounded by quotes (see the description of his-
tory_tokenize() below). History expansions are introduced by the
appearance of the history expansion character, which is ! by default.
Only backslash (\) and single quotes can quote the history expansion
character.
Event Designators
An event designator is a reference to a command line entry in the his-
tory list.
! Start a history substitution, except when followed by a blank,
newline, = or (.
!n Refer to command line n.
!-n Refer to the current command line minus n.
!! Refer to the previous command. This is a synonym for ‘!-1’.
!string
Refer to the most recent command starting with string.
!?string[?]
Refer to the most recent command containing string. The trail-
ing ? may be omitted if string is followed immediately by a
newline.
^string1^string2^
Quick substitution. Repeat the last command, replacing string1
with string2. Equivalent to ‘‘!!:s/string1/string2/’’ (see
Modifiers below).
!# The entire command line typed so far.
Word Designators
Word designators are used to select desired words from the event. A :
separates the event specification from the word designator. It may be
omitted if the word designator begins with a ^, $, *, -, or %. Words
are numbered from the beginning of the line, with the first word being
denoted by 0 (zero). Words are inserted into the current line sepa-
rated by single spaces.
0 (zero)
The zeroth word. For the shell, this is the command word.
n The nth word.
^ The first argument. That is, word 1.
$ The last argument.
% The word matched by the most recent ‘?string?’ search.
x-y A range of words; ‘-y’ abbreviates ‘0-y’.
* All of the words but the zeroth. This is a synonym for ‘1-$’.
It is not an error to use * if there is just one word in the
event; the empty string is returned in that case.
x* Abbreviates x-$.
x- Abbreviates x-$ like x*, but omits the last word.
If a word designator is supplied without an event specification, the
previous command is used as the event.
Modifiers
After the optional word designator, there may appear a sequence of one
or more of the following modifiers, each preceded by a ‘:’.
h Remove a trailing file name component, leaving only the head.
t Remove all leading file name components, leaving the tail.
r Remove a trailing suffix of the form .xxx, leaving the base-
name.
e Remove all but the trailing suffix.
p Print the new command but do not execute it.
q Quote the substituted words, escaping further substitutions.
x Quote the substituted words as with q, but break into words at
blanks and newlines.
s/old/new/
Substitute new for the first occurrence of old in the event
line. Any delimiter can be used in place of /. The final
delimiter is optional if it is the last character of the event
line. The delimiter may be quoted in old and new with a single
backslash. If & appears in new, it is replaced by old. A sin-
gle backslash will quote the &. If old is null, it is set to
the last old substituted, or, if no previous history substitu-
tions took place, the last string in a !?string[?] search.
& Repeat the previous substitution.
g Cause changes to be applied over the entire event line. This
is used in conjunction with ‘:s’ (e.g., ‘:gs/old/new/’) or
‘:&’. If used with ‘:s’, any delimiter can be used in place of
/, and the final delimiter is optional if it is the last char-
acter of the event line.
PROGRAMMING WITH HISTORY FUNCTIONS
This section describes how to use the History library in other pro-
grams.
Introduction to History
The programmer using the History library has available functions for
remembering lines on a history list, associating arbitrary data with a
line, removing lines from the list, searching through the list for a
line containing an arbitrary text string, and referencing any line in
the list directly. In addition, a history expansion function is
available which provides for a consistent user interface across dif-
ferent programs.
The user using programs written with the History library has the bene-
fit of a consistent user interface with a set of well-known commands
for manipulating the text of previous lines and using that text in new
commands. The basic history manipulation commands are identical to
the history substitution provided by bash.
If the programmer desires, he can use the Readline library, which
includes some history manipulation by default, and has the added
advantage of command line editing.
Before declaring any functions using any functionality the History
library provides in other code, an application writer should include
the file <readline/history.h> in any file that uses the History
library’s features. It supplies extern declarations for all of the
library’s public functions and variables, and declares all of the pub-
lic data structures.
History Storage
The history list is an array of history entries. A history entry is
declared as follows:
typedef void * histdata_t;
typedef struct _hist_entry {
char *line;
histdata_t data;
} HIST_ENTRY;
The history list itself might therefore be declared as
HIST_ENTRY ** the_history_list;
The state of the History library is encapsulated into a single struc-
ture:
/*
* A structure used to pass around the current state of the history.
*/
typedef struct _hist_state {
HIST_ENTRY **entries; /* Pointer to the entries themselves. */
int offset; /* The location pointer within this array. */
int length; /* Number of elements within this array. */
int size; /* Number of slots allocated to this array. */
int flags;
} HISTORY_STATE;
If the flags member includes HS_STIFLED, the history has been stifled.
History Functions
This section describes the calling sequence for the various functions
exported by the GNU History library.
Initializing History and State Management
This section describes functions used to initialize and manage the
state of the History library when you want to use the history func-
tions in your program.
void using_history (void)
Begin a session in which the history functions might be used. This
initializes the interactive variables.
HISTORY_STATE * history_get_history_state (void)
Return a structure describing the current state of the input history.
void history_set_history_state (HISTORY_STATE *state)
Set the state of the history list according to state.
History List Management
These functions manage individual entries on the history list, or set
parameters managing the list itself.
void add_history (const char *string)
Place string at the end of the history list. The associated data
field (if any) is set to NULL.
HIST_ENTRY * remove_history (int which)
Remove history entry at offset which from the history. The removed
element is returned so you can free the line, data, and containing
structure.
HIST_ENTRY * replace_history_entry (int which, const char *line, hist-
data_t data)
Make the history entry at offset which have line and data. This
returns the old entry so you can dispose of the data. In the case of
an invalid which, a NULL pointer is returned.
void clear_history (void)
Clear the history list by deleting all the entries.
void stifle_history (int max)
Stifle the history list, remembering only the last max entries.
int unstifle_history (void)
Stop stifling the history. This returns the previously-set maximum
number of history entries (as set by stifle_history()). history was
stifled. The value is positive if the history was stifled, negative
if it wasn’t.
int history_is_stifled (void)
Returns non-zero if the history is stifled, zero if it is not.
Information About the History List
These functions return information about the entire history list or
individual list entries.
HIST_ENTRY ** history_list (void)
Return a NULL terminated array of HIST_ENTRY * which is the current
input history. Element 0 of this list is the beginning of time. If
there is no history, return NULL.
int where_history (void)
Returns the offset of the current history element.
HIST_ENTRY * current_history (void)
Return the history entry at the current position, as determined by
where_history(). If there is no entry there, return a NULL pointer.
HIST_ENTRY * history_get (int offset)
Return the history entry at position offset, starting from his-
tory_base. If there is no entry there, or if offset is greater than
the history length, return a NULL pointer.
int history_total_bytes (void)
Return the number of bytes that the primary history entries are using.
This function returns the sum of the lengths of all the lines in the
history.
Moving Around the History List
These functions allow the current index into the history list to be
set or changed.
int history_set_pos (int pos)
Set the current history offset to pos, an absolute index into the
list. Returns 1 on success, 0 if pos is less than zero or greater
than the number of history entries.
HIST_ENTRY * previous_history (void)
Back up the current history offset to the previous history entry, and
return a pointer to that entry. If there is no previous entry, return
a NULL pointer.
HIST_ENTRY * next_history (void)
Move the current history offset forward to the next history entry, and
return the a pointer to that entry. If there is no next entry, return
a NULL pointer.
Searching the History List
These functions allow searching of the history list for entries con-
taining a specific string. Searching may be performed both forward
and backward from the current history position. The search may be
anchored, meaning that the string must match at the beginning of the
history entry.
int history_search (const char *string, int direction)
Search the history for string, starting at the current history offset.
If direction is less than 0, then the search is through previous
entries, otherwise through subsequent entries. If string is found,
then the current history index is set to that history entry, and the
value returned is the offset in the line of the entry where string was
found. Otherwise, nothing is changed, and a -1 is returned.
int history_search_prefix (const char *string, int direction)
Search the history for string, starting at the current history offset.
The search is anchored: matching lines must begin with string. If
direction is less than 0, then the search is through previous entries,
otherwise through subsequent entries. If string is found, then the
current history index is set to that entry, and the return value is 0.
Otherwise, nothing is changed, and a -1 is returned.
int history_search_pos (const char *string, int direction, int pos)
Search for string in the history list, starting at pos, an absolute
index into the list. If direction is negative, the search proceeds
backward from pos, otherwise forward. Returns the absolute index of
the history element where string was found, or -1 otherwise.
Managing the History File
The History library can read the history from and write it to a file.
This section documents the functions for managing a history file.
int read_history (const char *filename)
Add the contents of filename to the history list, a line at a time.
If filename is NULL, then read from ~/.history. Returns 0 if success-
ful, or errno if not.
int read_history_range (const char *filename, int from, int to)
Read a range of lines from filename, adding them to the history list.
Start reading at line from and end at to. If from is zero, start at
the beginning. If to is less than from, then read until the end of
the file. If filename is NULL, then read from ~/.history. Returns 0
if successful, or errno if not.
int write_history (const char *filename)
Write the current history to filename, overwriting filename if neces-
sary. If filename is NULL, then write the history list to ~/.history.
Returns 0 on success, or errno on a read or write error.
int append_history (int nelements, const char *filename)
Append the last nelements of the history list to filename. If file-
name is NULL, then append to ~/.history. Returns 0 on success, or
errno on a read or write error.
int history_truncate_file (const char *filename, int nlines)
Truncate the history file filename, leaving only the last nlines
lines. If filename is NULL, then ~/.history is truncated. Returns 0
on success, or errno on failure.
History Expansion
These functions implement history expansion.
int history_expand (char *string, char **output)
Expand string, placing the result into output, a pointer to a string.
Returns:
0 If no expansions took place (or, if the only change in
the text was the removal of escape characters preceding
the history expansion character);
1 if expansions did take place;
-1 if there was an error in expansion;
2 if the returned line should be displayed, but not exe-
cuted, as with the :p modifier.
If an error ocurred in expansion, then output contains a descriptive
error message.
char * get_history_event (const char *string, int *cindex, int qchar)
Returns the text of the history event beginning at string + *cindex.
*cindex is modified to point to after the event specifier. At func-
tion entry, cindex points to the index into string where the history
event specification begins. qchar is a character that is allowed to
end the event specification in addition to the ‘‘normal’’ terminating
characters.
char ** history_tokenize (const char *string)
Return an array of tokens parsed out of string, much as the shell
might. The tokens are split on the characters in the his-
tory_word_delimiters variable, and shell quoting conventions are
obeyed.
char * history_arg_extract (int first, int last, const char *string)
Extract a string segment consisting of the first through last argu-
ments present in string. Arguments are split using history_tok-
enize().
History Variables
This section describes the externally-visible variables exported by
the GNU History Library.
int history_base
The logical offset of the first entry in the history list.
int history_length
The number of entries currently stored in the history list.
int history_max_entries
The maximum number of history entries. This must be changed using
stifle_history().
char history_expansion_char
The character that introduces a history event. The default is !.
Setting this to 0 inhibits history expansion.
char history_subst_char
The character that invokes word substitution if found at the start of
a line. The default is ^.
char history_comment_char
During tokenization, if this character is seen as the first character
of a word, then it and all subsequent characters up to a newline are
ignored, suppressing history expansion for the remainder of the line.
This is disabled by default.
char * history_word_delimiters
The characters that separate tokens for history_tokenize(). The
default value is " \t\n()<>;&|".
char * history_no_expand_chars
The list of characters which inhibit history expansion if found imme-
diately following history_expansion_char. The default is space, tab,
newline, \r, and =.
char * history_search_delimiter_chars
The list of additional characters which can delimit a history search
string, in addition to space, tab, : and ? in the case of a substring
search. The default is empty.
int history_quotes_inhibit_expansion
If non-zero, single-quoted words are not scanned for the history
expansion character. The default value is 0.
rl_linebuf_func_t * history_inhibit_expansion_function
This should be set to the address of a function that takes two argu-
ments: a char * (string) and an int index into that string (i). It
should return a non-zero value if the history expansion starting at
string[i] should not be performed; zero if the expansion should be
done. It is intended for use by applications like bash that use the
history expansion character for additional purposes. By default, this
variable is set to NULL.
FILES
~/.history
Default filename for reading and writing saved history
SEE ALSO
The Gnu Readline Library, Brian Fox and Chet Ramey
The Gnu History Library, Brian Fox and Chet Ramey
bash(1)
readline(3)
AUTHORS
Brian Fox, Free Software Foundation
bfox@gnu.org
Chet Ramey, Case Western Reserve University
chet@ins.CWRU.Edu
BUG REPORTS
If you find a bug in the history library, you should report it. But
first, you should make sure that it really is a bug, and that it
appears in the latest version of the history library that you have.
Once you have determined that a bug actually exists, mail a bug report
to bug-readline@gnu.org. If you have a fix, you are welcome to mail
that as well! Suggestions and ‘philosophical’ bug reports may be
mailed to bug-readline@gnu.org or posted to the Usenet newsgroup
gnu.bash.bug.
Comments and bug reports concerning this manual page should be
directed to chet@ins.CWRU.Edu.
GNU History 4.3 2002 January 31 HISTORY(3)
