'''[https://github.com/hanslub42/rlwrap%|%rlwrap]''' is a wrapper for GNU [readline]. It can be used with an [Interactive Tcl%|%interactive Tcl%|%] to provide readline editing and command history functionality.

To use it with tclsh, start tclsh with:

======none
rlwrap tclsh
======

Useful options are `-c` (file name completion) and `-f` (add words from a file
to the completion list).

To use rlwrap with tclsh with file name completion type:

======none
rlwrap -c tclsh
======

It would be nice to have a file of all words used in Tcl: commands and
subcommands to set rlwrap up using the -f option.

[info commands] and [info procs] could help with that. Maybe there are some
*.syn files out there to provide such a database.



** Alternatives **


*** Current ***

**** enhance ****

The rlwrap alternative bundled with the [http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~mcs/tecla/index.html%|%Tecla command-line editing library], which offers tcsh-like interactive command line editing. Has both [vi] and [emacs] key bindings. The former are [https://ivorykite.blogspot.com/2013/06/rlwrap-try-using-teclas-enhance.html%|%allegedly] better than rlwrap's.

**** rlfe ****

Available from http://per.bothner.com/software/#rlfe and as a Debian/Ubuntu package.

**** socat readline ****

[PT]: It is also possible to use [socat] to wrap readline around your tclsh executable.

======
# Rename your tclsh8.6 binary to tclsh8.6.exe then create the following wrapper script
mv tclsh8.6 tclsh8.6.exe
cat > tclsh8.6 <<EOF
#!/bin/bash
bin=$(readlink -f $0).exe
if [ $# -lt 1 ]; then
    exec socat READLINE,history=$HOME/.tclsh_history EXEC:$bin,pty,ctty,echo=0
else
    exec $bin $*
fi
======

The same can be usefully done for wish.


*** Outdated ***

**** Cle ****

Cle (http://kaolin.unice.fr/Cle/) is another command history filter. Unmaintained since 1999.

**** fep ****

`fep` was once a common alternative to `rlwrap`, though it hasn't been updated since 1995. The canonical URL for its source code is ftp://ftp.sra.co.jp/pub/cmd/fep/fep.tar.gz. The [pkgsrc] [http://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/current/pkgsrc/misc/fep/README.html%|%package] with the included patches is useful if you want to build it on a modern system.



** Discussion **

[RS] 2013-11-01: For more convenience, you can put
 alias tclsh='rlwrap -c tclsh8.5'
in your .bashrc or a similar startup file. On Ubuntu, rlwrap can be fetched with apt-get install.
----
[fr] 2016-12-20: For vi editor mode add 2 lines to ~.inputrc or /etc/inputrc

======
set editor-mode vi
set keymap vi
======



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