Re: word selection in history expansion - !?word?%

[Chet Ramey]

On 8/12/24 5:15 PM, Jess M wrote:
> Given the age of the behaviour, I would agree on not making it the default 
> behaviour.
>
> To update the documentation to reflect that, how about something like this:
> --- current --- lib/readline/doc/hsuser.texi
>   @item %
>   The first word matched by the most recent @samp{?@var{string}?} search,
> if the search string begins with a character that is part of a word.
> --- proposed ---
>   @item %
>   The first word matched by the most recent @samp{?@var{string}?} search,
> if the search string begins with a character that is part of a word. The
> search happens in reverse, so if multiple words on a line match, the word
> nearer the end of the line is returned.

Thanks. I will add something similar.

> Consider updating the word designator to accept a count.  In this mode, `!? 
> word?:%3` would provide the third found item found in a reverse search.

I'd be wary of extending the history expansion syntax, even to the extent
of adding a new modifier. It's been basically identical for what, 46 years?
It's an interesting idea, though.

> Implementing the search across lines might prove tricky.  The current code 
> splits line match and word match; we don't even count words until after 
> we've identified the matched line.

History expansion is aggressively line-oriented.

--
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
                 ``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates
Chet Ramey, UTech, CWRU    chet@case.edu    http://tiswww.cwru.edu/~chet/