--- /dev/null
+@ignore
+This file documents the user interface to the GNU History library.
+
+Copyright (C) 1988, 1991, 1996 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+Authored by Brian Fox and Chet Ramey.
+
+Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual
+provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on
+all copies.
+
+Permission is granted to process this file through Tex and print the
+results, provided the printed document carries copying permission notice
+identical to this one except for the removal of this paragraph (this
+paragraph not being relevant to the printed manual).
+
+Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
+manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also that the
+GNU Copyright statement is available to the distributee, and provided that
+the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
+permission notice identical to this one.
+
+Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual
+into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions.
+@end ignore
+
+@node Using History Interactively
+@chapter Using History Interactively
+
+@ifset BashFeatures
+This chapter describes how to use the GNU History Library interactively,
+from a user's standpoint. It should be considered a user's guide. For
+information on using the GNU History Library in other programs,
+see the GNU Readline Library Manual.
+@end ifset
+@ifclear BashFeatures
+This chapter describes how to use the GNU History Library interactively,
+from a user's standpoint. It should be considered a user's guide.
+@c For
+@c information on using the GNU History Library in your own programs,
+@c @pxref{Programming with GNU History}.
+@end ifclear
+
+@ifset BashFeatures
+@menu
+* Bash History Facilities:: How Bash lets you manipulate your command
+ history.
+* Bash History Builtins:: The Bash builtin commands that manipulate
+ the command history.
+* History Interaction:: What it feels like using History as a user.
+@end menu
+@end ifset
+@ifclear BashFeatures
+@menu
+* History Interaction:: What it feels like using History as a user.
+@end menu
+@end ifclear
+
+@ifset BashFeatures
+@node Bash History Facilities
+@section Bash History Facilities
+@cindex command history
+@cindex history list
+
+When the @samp{-o history} option to the @code{set} builtin
+is enabled (@pxref{The Set Builtin}),
+the shell provides access to the @var{command history},
+the list of commands previously typed. The text of the last
+@code{HISTSIZE}
+commands (default 500) is saved in a history list. The shell
+stores each command in the history list prior to parameter and
+variable expansion
+but after history expansion is performed, subject to the
+values of the shell variables
+@code{HISTIGNORE} and @code{HISTCONTROL}.
+When the shell starts up, the history is initialized from the
+file named by the @code{HISTFILE} variable (default @file{~/.bash_history}).
+@code{HISTFILE} is truncated, if necessary, to contain no more than
+the number of lines specified by the value of the @code{HISTFILESIZE}
+variable. When an interactive shell exits, the last
+@code{HISTSIZE} lines are copied from the history list to @code{HISTFILE}.
+If the @code{histappend} shell option is set (@pxref{Bash Builtins}),
+the lines are appended to the history file,
+otherwise the history file is overwritten.
+If @code{HISTFILE}
+is unset, or if the history file is unwritable, the history is
+not saved. After saving the history, the history file is truncated
+to contain no more than @code{$HISTFILESIZE}
+lines. If @code{HISTFILESIZE} is not set, no truncation is performed.
+
+The builtin command @code{fc} may be used to list or edit and re-execute
+a portion of the history list.
+The @code{history} builtin can be used to display or modify the history
+list and manipulate the history file.
+When using the command-line editing, search commands
+are available in each editing mode that provide access to the
+history list.
+
+The shell allows control over which commands are saved on the history
+list. The @code{HISTCONTROL} and @code{HISTIGNORE}
+variables may be set to cause the shell to save only a subset of the
+commands entered.
+The @code{cmdhist}
+shell option, if enabled, causes the shell to attempt to save each
+line of a multi-line command in the same history entry, adding
+semicolons where necessary to preserve syntactic correctness.
+The @code{lithist}
+shell option causes the shell to save the command with embedded newlines
+instead of semicolons.
+@xref{Bash Builtins}, for a description of @code{shopt}.
+
+@node Bash History Builtins
+@section Bash History Builtins
+@cindex history builtins
+
+Bash provides two builtin commands that allow you to manipulate the
+history list and history file.
+
+@table @code
+
+@item fc
+@c btindex fc
+@example
+@code{fc [-e @var{ename}] [-nlr] [@var{first}] [@var{last}]}
+@code{fc -s [@var{pat}=@var{rep}] [@var{command}]}
+@end example
+
+Fix Command. In the first form, a range of commands from @var{first} to
+@var{last} is selected from the history list. Both @var{first} and
+@var{last} may be specified as a string (to locate the most recent
+command beginning with that string) or as a number (an index into the
+history list, where a negative number is used as an offset from the
+current command number). If @var{last} is not specified it is set to
+@var{first}. If @var{first} is not specified it is set to the previous
+command for editing and @minus{}16 for listing. If the @samp{-l} flag is
+given, the commands are listed on standard output. The @samp{-n} flag
+suppresses the command numbers when listing. The @samp{-r} flag
+reverses the order of the listing. Otherwise, the editor given by
+@var{ename} is invoked on a file containing those commands. If
+@var{ename} is not given, the value of the following variable expansion
+is used: @code{$@{FCEDIT:-$@{EDITOR:-vi@}@}}. This says to use the
+value of the @code{FCEDIT} variable if set, or the value of the
+@code{EDITOR} variable if that is set, or @code{vi} if neither is set.
+When editing is complete, the edited commands are echoed and executed.
+
+In the second form, @var{command} is re-executed after each instance
+of @var{pat} in the selected command is replaced by @var{rep}.
+
+A useful alias to use with the @code{fc} command is @code{r='fc -s'}, so
+that typing @samp{r cc} runs the last command beginning with @code{cc}
+and typing @samp{r} re-executes the last command (@pxref{Aliases}).
+
+@item history
+@c btindex history
+@example
+history [-c] [@var{n}]
+history [-anrw] [@var{filename}]
+history -ps @var{arg}
+@end example
+
+Display the history list with line numbers. Lines prefixed with
+with a @samp{*} have been modified. An argument of @var{n} says
+to list only the last @var{n} lines. Options, if supplied, have
+the following meanings:
+
+@table @code
+@item -w
+Write out the current history to the history file.
+
+@item -r
+Read the current history file and append its contents to
+the history list.
+
+@item -a
+Append the new
+history lines (history lines entered since the beginning of the
+current Bash session) to the history file.
+
+@item -n
+Append the history lines not already read from the history file
+to the current history list. These are lines appended to the history
+file since the beginning of the current Bash session.
+
+@item -c
+Clear the history list. This may be combined
+with the other options to replace the history list completely.
+
+@item -s
+The @var{arg}s are added to the end of
+the history list as a single entry.
+
+@item -p
+Perform history substitution on the @var{arg}s and display the result
+on the standard output, without storing the results in the history list.
+@end table
+
+When the @samp{-w}, @samp{-r}, @samp{-a}, or @samp{-n} option is
+used, if @var{filename}
+is given, then it is used as the history file. If not, then
+the value of the @code{HISTFILE} variable is used.
+
+@end table
+@end ifset
+
+@node History Interaction
+@section History Expansion
+@cindex history expansion
+
+The History library provides a history expansion feature that is similar
+to the history expansion provided by @code{csh}. This section
+describes the syntax used to manipulate the history information.
+
+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 takes place in two parts. The first is to determine
+which line from the history list should be used during substitution.
+The second is to select portions of that line for inclusion into the
+current one. The line selected from the history is called the
+@dfn{event}, and the portions of that line that are acted upon are
+called @dfn{words}. Various @dfn{modifiers} are available to manipulate
+the selected words. The line is broken into words in the same fashion
+that Bash does, so that several words
+surrounded by quotes are considered one word.
+History expansions are introduced by the appearance of the
+history expansion character, which is @samp{!} by default.
+@ifset BashFeatures
+Only @samp{\} and @samp{'} may be used to escape the history expansion
+character.
+@end ifset
+
+@ifset BashFeatures
+Several shell options settable with the @code{shopt}
+builtin (@pxref{Bash Builtins}) may be used to tailor
+the behavior of history expansion. If the
+@code{histverify} shell option is enabled, and Readline
+is being used, history substitutions are not immediately passed to
+the shell parser.
+Instead, the expanded line is reloaded into the Readline
+editing buffer for further modification.
+If Readline is being used, and the @code{histreedit}
+shell option is enabled, a failed history expansion will be
+reloaded into the Readline editing buffer for correction.
+The @samp{-p} option to the @code{history} builtin command
+may be used to see what a history expansion will do before using it.
+The @samp{-s} option to the @code{history} builtin may be used to
+add commands to the end of the history list without actually executing
+them, so that they are available for subsequent recall.
+This is most useful in conjunction with Readline.
+
+The shell allows control of the various characters used by the
+history expansion mechanism with the @code{histchars} variable.
+@end ifset
+
+@menu
+* Event Designators:: How to specify which history line to use.
+* Word Designators:: Specifying which words are of interest.
+* Modifiers:: Modifying the results of substitution.
+@end menu
+
+@node Event Designators
+@subsection Event Designators
+@cindex event designators
+
+An event designator is a reference to a command line entry in the
+history list.
+@cindex history events
+
+@table @asis
+
+@item @code{!}
+Start a history substitution, except when followed by a space, tab,
+the end of the line, @samp{=} or @samp{(}.
+
+@item @code{!@var{n}}
+Refer to command line @var{n}.
+
+@item @code{!-@var{n}}
+Refer to the command @var{n} lines back.
+
+@item @code{!!}
+Refer to the previous command. This is a synonym for @samp{!-1}.
+
+@item @code{!@var{string}}
+Refer to the most recent command starting with @var{string}.
+
+@item @code{!?@var{string}[?]}
+Refer to the most recent command containing @var{string}. The trailing
+@samp{?} may be omitted if the @var{string} is followed immediately by
+a newline.
+
+@item @code{^@var{string1}^@var{string2}^}
+Quick Substitution. Repeat the last command, replacing @var{string1}
+with @var{string2}. Equivalent to
+@code{!!:s/@var{string1}/@var{string2}/}.
+
+@item @code{!#}
+The entire command line typed so far.
+
+@end table
+
+@node Word Designators
+@subsection Word Designators
+
+Word designators are used to select desired words from the event.
+A @samp{:} separates the event specification from the word designator. It
+may be omitted if the word designator begins with a @samp{^}, @samp{$},
+@samp{*}, @samp{-}, or @samp{%}. 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 separated by single spaces.
+
+@table @code
+
+@item 0 (zero)
+The @code{0}th word. For many applications, this is the command word.
+
+@item @var{n}
+The @var{n}th word.
+
+@item ^
+The first argument; that is, word 1.
+
+@item $
+The last argument.
+
+@item %
+The word matched by the most recent @samp{?@var{string}?} search.
+
+@item @var{x}-@var{y}
+A range of words; @samp{-@var{y}} abbreviates @samp{0-@var{y}}.
+
+@item *
+All of the words, except the @code{0}th. This is a synonym for @samp{1-$}.
+It is not an error to use @samp{*} if there is just one word in the event;
+the empty string is returned in that case.
+
+@item @var{x}*
+Abbreviates @samp{@var{x}-$}
+
+@item @var{x}-
+Abbreviates @samp{@var{x}-$} like @samp{@var{x}*}, but omits the last word.
+
+@end table
+
+If a word designator is supplied without an event specification, the
+previous command is used as the event.
+
+@node Modifiers
+@subsection Modifiers
+
+After the optional word designator, you can add a sequence of one or more
+of the following modifiers, each preceded by a @samp{:}.
+
+@table @code
+
+@item h
+Remove a trailing pathname component, leaving only the head.
+
+@item t
+Remove all leading pathname components, leaving the tail.
+
+@item r
+Remove a trailing suffix of the form @samp{.@var{suffix}}, leaving
+the basename.
+
+@item e
+Remove all but the trailing suffix.
+
+@item p
+Print the new command but do not execute it.
+
+@ifset BashFeatures
+@item q
+Quote the substituted words, escaping further substitutions.
+
+@item x
+Quote the substituted words as with @samp{q},
+but break into words at spaces, tabs, and newlines.
+@end ifset
+
+@item s/@var{old}/@var{new}/
+Substitute @var{new} for the first occurrence of @var{old} in the
+event line. Any delimiter may be used in place of @samp{/}.
+The delimiter may be quoted in @var{old} and @var{new}
+with a single backslash. If @samp{&} appears in @var{new},
+it is replaced by @var{old}. A single backslash will quote
+the @samp{&}. The final delimiter is optional if it is the last
+character on the input line.
+
+@item &
+Repeat the previous substitution.
+
+@item g
+Cause changes to be applied over the entire event line. Used in
+conjunction with @samp{s}, as in @code{gs/@var{old}/@var{new}/},
+or with @samp{&}.
+
+@end table