Bash Configuration for Debian ----------------------------- A number of patches for the bash sources is applied for the Debian build of bash. See the details at the end of the file. The bash package was built using the following configuration options: --with-curses \ --enable-largefile \ bash-static additionally configured with --enable-static-link. The upstream ChangeLog can be found in the bash-doc package. A kind of FAQ for bash on Debian GNU/{Linux,Hurd} ------------------------------------------------- 1. symlinked directory completion behavior Starting with readline-4.2a, completion on symlinks that point to directories does not append the slash. To restore the behaviour found in readline-4.2, add to /etc/inputrc or ~/.inputrc: set mark-symlinked-directories on 2. How can I make bash 8-bit clean so I can type hi-bit characters directly? Remove the comments from the indicated lines in /etc/inputrc. It doesn't ship this way because otherwise the Meta bindings will not work. 3. How to get rid off annoying beeps for ambiguous completions? Put in /etc/inputrc (or in your ~/.inputrc): set show-all-if-ambiguous on Other people prefer: set bell-style none 4. bash doesn't display prompts correctly. When using colors in prompts (or escape characters), then make sure those characters are surrounded by \[ and \]. For more information look at the man page bash(1) and search for PROMPTING. 5. What is /etc/bash.bashrc? It doesn't seem to be documented. The Debian version of bash is compiled with a special option (-DSYS_BASHRC) that makes bash read /etc/bash.bashrc before ~/.bashrc for interactive non-login shells. So, on Debian systems, /etc/bash.bashrc is to ~/.bashrc as /etc/profile is to ~/.bash_profile. 6. bash does not check $PATH if hash fails bash hashes the location of recently executed commands. When a command is moved to a new location in the PATH, the command is still in the PATH but the hash table still records the old location. For performance reasons bash does not remove the command from the hash and relook it up in PATH. Use 'hash -r' manually or set a bash option: 'shopt -s checkhash'. 7. Bourne-style shells have always accepted multiple directory name arguments to cd. If the user doesn't like it, have him define a shell function: cd() { case $# in 0|1) ;; *) echo "cd: too many arguments ; return 2 ;; esac builtin cd "$@" } 8. key bindings for ESC Consider the following .inputrc: set editing-mode vi keymap vi "\M-[D": backward-char "\M-[C": forward-char "\M-[A": previous-history "\M-[B": next-history And, just to be certain, set -o reports that vi is on. However, ESC k does not send me to the previous line. I'm guessing that this is a conflict between bash's concept of a meta keymap and its concept of vi's command-mode character -- which is to say that its data structures don't properly reflect its implementation. Note that if I remove the meta prefix, leaving lines like: "[A": previous-history That vi command mode keys work fine, and I can use the arrow keys in vi mode, *provided I'm already in command mode already*. In other words, bash is doing something wrong here such that it doesn't see the escape character at the beginning of the key sequence even when in vi insert mode. Comment from the upstream author: "This guy destroyed the key binding for ESC, which effectively disabled vi command mode. It's not as simple as he paints it to be -- the binding for ESC in the vi insertion keymap *must* be a function because of the other things needed when switching from insert mode to command mode. If he wants to change something in vi's command mode, he needs to use `set keymap vi-command' and enter key bindings without the \M- prefix (as he discovered)." Patches Applied to the Bash Sources -----------------------------------