Introduction ============ This is GNU Bash, version 3.1. Bash is the GNU Project's Bourne Again SHell, a complete implementation of the POSIX.2 shell spec, but also with interactive command line editing, job control on architectures that support it, csh-like features such as history substitution and brace expansion, and a slew of other features. For more information on the features of Bash that are new to this type of shell, see the file `doc/bashref.texi'. There is also a large Unix-style man page. The man page is the definitive description of the shell's features. See the file POSIX for a discussion of how the Bash defaults differ from the POSIX.2 spec and a description of the Bash `posix mode'. There are some user-visible incompatibilities between this version of Bash and a previous widely-distributed version, bash-1.14. For details, see the file COMPAT. The NEWS file tersely lists features that are new in this release. Bash is free software, distributed under the terms of the [GNU] General Public License, version 2. For more information, see the file COPYING. A number of frequently-asked questions are answered in the file `doc/FAQ'. To compile Bash, try typing `./configure', then `make'. Bash auto-configures the build process, so no further intervention should be necessary. Bash builds with `gcc' by default if it is available. If you want to use `cc' instead, type CC=cc ./configure if you are using a Bourne-style shell. If you are not, the following may work: env CC=cc ./configure Read the file INSTALL in this directory for more information about how to customize and control the build process. The file NOTES contains platform-specific installation and configuration information. If you are a csh user and wish to convert your csh aliases to Bash aliases, you may wish to use the script `examples/misc/alias-conv.sh' as a starting point. The script `examples/misc/cshtobash' is a more ambitious script that attempts to do a more complete job. Reporting Bugs ============== Bug reports for bash should be sent to: bug-bash@gnu.org using the `bashbug' program that is built and installed at the same time as bash. The discussion list `bug-bash@gnu.org' often contains information about new ports of Bash, or discussions of new features or behavior changes that people would like. This mailing list is also available as a usenet newsgroup: gnu.bash.bug. When you send a bug report, please use the `bashbug' program that is built at the same time as bash. If bash fails to build, try building bashbug directly with `make bashbug'. If you cannot build `bashbug', please send mail to bug-bash@gnu.org with the following information: * the version number and release status of Bash (e.g., 2.05a-release) * the machine and OS that it is running on (you may run `bashversion -l' from the bash build directory for this information) * a list of the compilation flags or the contents of `config.h', if appropriate * a description of the bug * a recipe for recreating the bug reliably * a fix for the bug if you have one! The `bashbug' program includes much of this automatically. If you would like to contact the Bash maintainers directly, send mail to bash-maintainers@gnu.org. While the Bash maintainers do not promise to fix all bugs, we would like this shell to be the best that we can make it. Enjoy! Chet Ramey chet@po.cwru.edu