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[1/2] Read $GDBHISTSIZE instead of $HISTSIZE

Message ID CA+C-WL9Qh8i7kFegEpip-rRYv4eb=xA=g3Kqj55v+Su+oKUiWA@mail.gmail.com
State New, archived
Headers

Commit Message

Patrick Palka June 17, 2015, 6:19 p.m. UTC 
  On Fri, May 22, 2015 at 7:23 AM, Patrick Palka <patrick@parcs.ath.cx> wrote:
> The HISTSIZE environment variable is generally expected to be read by
> shells, not by applications.  Some distros for example globally export
> HISTSIZE in /etc/profile -- with the intention that it only affects
> shells -- and by doing so it renders useless GDB's own mechanism for
> setting the history size via .gdbinit.  Also, annoyances may arise when
> HISTSIZE is not interpreted the same way by the shell and by GDB, e.g.
> PR gdb/16999.  That can always be fixed on a shell-by-shell basis but it
> may be impossible to be consistent with the behavior of all shells at
> once.  Finally it just makes sense to not confound shell environment
> variables with application environment variables.
>
> gdb/ChangeLog:
>
>         * NEWS: Add entry.
>         * top.c (init_history): Read from GDBHISTSIZE instead of
>         HISTSIZE.
>         (init_main): Refer to GDBHISTSIZE instead of HISTSIZE.
>
> gdb/doc/ChangeLog:
>
>         * gdb.texinfo (Command History): Replace occurrences of HISTSIZE
>         with GDBHISTSIZE.
>
> gdb/testsuite/ChangeLog:
>
>         * gdb.base/gdbinit-history.exp: Replace occurrences of HISTSIZE
>         with GDBHISTSIZE.
>         * gdb.base/readline.exp: Likewis.

Committed this change (without the part that explains in the manual
why we don't use HISTSIZE).  Eli, what do you think about the
following addendum to the manual?

 History expansion assigns special meaning to the character @kbd{!}.
diff mbox

Patch

diff --git a/gdb/doc/gdb.texinfo b/gdb/doc/gdb.texinfo
index 9889b69..c1b11f4 100644
--- a/gdb/doc/gdb.texinfo
+++ b/gdb/doc/gdb.texinfo
@@ -22644,6 +22644,15 @@  to 256 if this variable is not set.
Non-numeric values of @env{GDBHISTSIZE}
 are ignored.  If @var{size} is @code{unlimited} or if @env{GDBHISTSIZE} is a
 negative number, the number of commands @value{GDBN} keeps in the history list
 is unlimited.
+
+Note: In @value{GDBN} version 7.8 and earlier, the @env{HISTSIZE} environment
+variable was read instead of the @env{GDBHISTSIZE} environment variable.
+However, reading @env{HISTSIZE} was problematic since this environment variable
+is usually set with the intention to be read only by the user's shell, and
+differences in interpretation of this environment variable may exist between
+@value{GDBN} and the prevailing shell.  So since @value{GDBN} version 7.9 the
+dedicated @env{GDBHISTSIZE} environment variable is instead read for the same
+purpose.
 @end table