6.22. Readline-5.0

The Readline package contains the Readline command-line library.

Approximate build time: 0.11 SBU

Required disk space: 3.8 MB

Readline installation depends on: Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, Gawk, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Make, Ncurses, and Sed

6.22.1. Installation of Readline

The following patch fixes a problem where Readline sometimes only shows 33 characters on a line and then wraps to the next line.

patch -Np1 -i ../readline-5.0-display_wrap-1.patch

Prepare Readline for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr

Compile the package:

make SHLIB_XLDFLAGS=-lncurses

The meaning of the make option:

SHLIB_XLDFLAGS=-lncurses

This option forces Readline to link against the libncurses library.

Install the package:

make install

Give Readline's dynamic libraries more appropriate permissions:

chmod 755 /usr/lib/*.5.0

Move the dynamic libraries to a more appropriate location:

mv /usr/lib/lib{readline,history}.so.5* /lib

Because the libraries have been moved, a few symlinks are now pointing to non-existent files. Recreate those symlinks:

ln -sf ../../lib/libhistory.so.5 /usr/lib/libhistory.so
ln -sf ../../lib/libreadline.so.5 /usr/lib/libreadline.so

6.22.2. Contents of Readline

Installed libraries: libhistory.[a,so], and libreadline.[a,so]

Short Descriptions

libhistory

Provides a consistent user interface for recalling lines of history

libreadline

Aids in the consistency of user interface across discrete programs that need to provide a command line interface