The Readline package is a set of libraries that offers command-line editing and history capabilities.
First install some patches to fix various bugs that have been addressed upstream:
patch -Np1 -i ../readline-6.3-upstream_fixes-3.patch
Reinstalling Readline will cause the old libraries to be moved to <libraryname>.old. While this is normally not a problem, in some cases it can trigger a linking bug in ldconfig. This can be avoided by issuing the following two seds:
sed -i '/MV.*old/d' Makefile.in
sed -i '/{OLDSUFF}/c:' support/shlib-install
Prepare Readline for compilation:
./configure --prefix=/usr \
--disable-static \
--docdir=/usr/share/doc/readline-6.3
Compile the package:
make SHLIB_LIBS=-lncurses
The meaning of the make option:
SHLIB_LIBS=-lncurses
This option forces Readline to link against the libncurses (really, libncursesw) library.
This package does not come with a test suite.
Install the package to a temporary directory:
make SHLIB_LIBS=-lncurses DESTDIR=$(pwd)/debian/tmp install
Now move the dynamic libraries to a more appropriate location and fix up some symbolic links:
mkdir -pv debian/tmp/lib
mv -v debian/tmp/usr/lib/lib{readline,history}.so.* debian/tmp/lib
ln -sfv ../../lib/$(readlink debian/tmp/usr/lib/libreadline.so) \
debian/tmp/usr/lib/libreadline.so
ln -sfv ../../lib/$(readlink debian/tmp/usr/lib/libhistory.so ) \
debian/tmp/usr/lib/libhistory.so
If desired, install the documentation:
install -v -m644 doc/*.{ps,pdf,html,dvi} debian/tmp/usr/share/doc/readline-6.3
The inputrc file handles keyboard
mapping for specific situations. This file is the startup file used
by Readline.
Most people do not need user-specific keyboard mappings so the
command below creates a global /etc/inputrc used by everyone who logs in. If you
later decide you need to override the defaults on a per-user basis,
you can create a .inputrc file in the
user's home directory with the modified mappings.
For more information on how to edit the inputrc file, see info bash under the Readline Init File section. info readline is also a good
source of information.
Below is a generic global inputrc
along with comments to explain what the various options do. Note
that comments cannot be on the same line as commands. Create the
file using the following command:
mkdir -pv debian/tmp/etc
cat > debian/tmp/etc/inputrc << "EOF"
# Begin /etc/inputrc
# Modified by Chris Lynn <roryo@roryo.dynup.net>
# Allow the command prompt to wrap to the next line
set horizontal-scroll-mode Off
# Enable 8bit input
set meta-flag On
set input-meta On
# Turns off 8th bit stripping
set convert-meta Off
# Keep the 8th bit for display
set output-meta On
# none, visible or audible
set bell-style none
# All of the following map the escape sequence of the value
# contained in the 1st argument to the readline specific functions
"\eOd": backward-word
"\eOc": forward-word
# for linux console
"\e[1~": beginning-of-line
"\e[4~": end-of-line
"\e[5~": beginning-of-history
"\e[6~": end-of-history
"\e[3~": delete-char
"\e[2~": quoted-insert
# for xterm
"\eOH": beginning-of-line
"\eOF": end-of-line
# for Konsole
"\e[H": beginning-of-line
"\e[F": end-of-line
# End /etc/inputrc
EOF
Create the package archive:
buildpkg
Install the package:
dpkg -i ../readline_6.3_*.deb