[R] deficiencies in readline capability

[Jay F Shachter]

When I first configured and built R, I did not have the GNU readline
library installed on my system, so naturally I got an R without
readline capabilities.  I then installed the GNU readline library, and
again configured and built R.  I now have an R with readline
capability, but it is a deficient readline capability, providing only
one-line editing capability (e.g., CTRL-A, CTRL-E, CTRL-B, CTRL-F,
CTRL-D) without any history functionality (e.g., CTRL-P, CTRL-N,
CTRL-R).  The shared libraries, version, and history capability of R
are as shown in the following logfile, where "$ " is my shell prompt:


$ ldd /opt/jay/lib/SunOS5/R/bin/R.bin
	libm.so.1 =>	 /usr/lib/libm.so.1
	libz.so =>	 /opt/jay/lib/SunOS5/libz.so
	libnsl.so.1 =>	 /usr/lib/libnsl.so.1
	libsocket.so.1 =>	 /usr/lib/libsocket.so.1
	libreadline.so.4 =>	 /gnu/lib/libreadline.so.4
	libdl.so.1 =>	 /usr/lib/libdl.so.1
	libcurses.so.1 =>	 /usr/lib/libcurses.so.1
	libc.so.1 =>	 /usr/lib/libc.so.1
	libucb.so.1 =>	 /usr/ucblib/libucb.so.1
	libresolv.so.2 =>	 /usr/lib/libresolv.so.2
	libelf.so.1 =>	 /usr/lib/libelf.so.1
	libmp.so.2 =>	 /usr/lib/libmp.so.2
	libgcc_s.so.1 =>	 /gnu/lib/libgcc_s.so.1
$ R --vanilla

R : Copyright 2002, The R Development Core Team
Version 1.4.1  (2002-01-30)

R is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
You are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.
Type `license()' or `licence()' for distribution details.

R is a collaborative project with many contributors.
Type `contributors()' for more information.

Type `demo()' for some demos, `help()' for on-line help, or
`help.start()' for a HTML browser interface to help.
Type `q()' to quit R.

> history()
Error in savehistory(file) : no history available to save
> q()
$ 



Clearly I am using the GNU readline libraries, but there is another,
and perhaps unrelated, problem, which is that no history is
accessible.  I gave R no configuration option to turn off history
capability when I configured it, nor am I aware that any such option
exists.

What am I doing wrong?

			Jay F. Shachter
			6424 N Whipple St
			Chicago IL  60645-4111
				(1-773)7613784
				jay at m5.chi.il.us
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