Configuration Information [Automatically generated]:
Machine: x86_64
OS: linux-gnu
Compiler: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-gcc
Compilation CFLAGS: -march=native -O2 -pipe -Wno-parentheses
-Wno-format-security
uname output: Linux primeval 5.4.30-gentoo #33 SMP Wed Jul 29 00:03:46 EDT 2020
x86_64 AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core Processor AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux
Machine Type: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
Bash Version: 5.0
Patch Level: 17
Release Status: release
Description:
During history search, Bash allows one to correct the search term
by backspacing, e.g. after making a typo, but it fails to correct
the search position in response.
A typo is like a ‘wrong turn at Albuquerque’, it can get one lost.
Backspacing and erasing part of the search term *should* take one
back to Albuquerque, but does not; while it corrects the search
term, it fails to correct the search position (inconsistency)
which leaves one lost.
Repeat-By:
During a history search, I make a typo while entering the search
term (wrong term!). Bash either finds a match for my typo, or it
beeps at me. In either case, the search position has now changed,
leaving me somewhere in the middle of history (wrong place!).
I backspace to undo my typo. This undoes the typo, but (here is
the bug) does not undo the change to the search position. Still I
am at the wrong place. As I retype the search term (correctly
this time), the results are not what I expect. I remain lost in
Bash history.
I could find no satisfactory workarounds. See e.g.
https://unix.stackexchange.com/q/523543.
Fix:
I think the following might work. It seems to be how Emacs works
during interactive text searches.
As the user backspaces stepwise over a search term, reverting at
each step to a previous value, revert the search position to *its*
correponding, previous value.
--
Michael Allan
Toronto, +1 416 699 9528
http://reluk.ca/
