osh: interactive line editing/history/completion via GNU readline

alganet · alganet · commit 7883f0b1d012 · 2026-06-23T08:30:11.000-03:00
osh built --without-readline, which disables ALL interactive features (line
editing, history, completion) -- and Oils has no fallback editor: every path is
gated behind HAVE_READLINE, and libedit's readline-compat layer is missing
functions Oils calls (rl_list_funmap_names, rl_callback_sigcleanup, ...). So
readline is the only way to give osh interactivity.

LICENSING: GNU readline is GPLv3, so the osh binary is now a GPLv3 combined work
(Oils itself is Apache-2.0). This is the only GPL artifact in the set; it was a
deliberate choice to enable osh's interactive features.

Add common/readline.sh: static GNU readline 8.3 built with musl-cross against the
in-tree static ncurses, mirroring common/ncurses.sh (idempotent, fetch +
checksums/sources/readline/). Because Oils probes and links a bare `-lreadline`
with no `-lncurses`, the installed libreadline.a is merged with the in-tree
ncurses (and libhistory.a) via `ar -M` into one self-contained archive, so the
bare `-lreadline` resolves readline + history + termcap. Like ncurses/libedit the
tarball is fetched fresh and checksum-verified; it is not committed (/build is
gitignored).

Wire it into osh: build readline, replace --without-readline with
--readline &lt;prefix&gt; (the option exists since 0.25.0). Also add a musl `cc`
wrapper alongside the existing `c++` one: Oils' configure feature probes
(cc_quiet) default to the host `cc`, which cannot link the musl libreadline.a, so
readline detection was silently failing and osh fell back to --without-readline;
the wrapper makes the probes match the actual musl build (and keeps feature
detection musl-accurate).

Verified across the full range (0.25.0..0.37.0) on both arches: osh now links
readline (the `history` builtin lists commands instead of erroring "Oils wasn't
compiled with readline"), and core features are intact ($((6*7))=42, pattern
matching). Regenerated checksums/build/{amd64,arm64}/osh_*;
verify_build_checksums passes on both arches.
diff --git a/checksums/build/amd64/osh_0.25.0/bin/osh.sha256sums b/checksums/build/amd64/osh_0.25.0/bin/osh.sha256sums
@@ -1 +1 @@
-365241b29d2881f70f6b6de9f55c7b8cddd6efea7953584b0746b5c33267ee55  osh
+ea170512f2b75a5c1f8ecdd268c16f51c324bc0bee14733cc7ec25bd20a0dc0a  osh
diff --git a/checksums/build/amd64/osh_0.26.0/bin/osh.sha256sums b/checksums/build/amd64/osh_0.26.0/bin/osh.sha256sums
@@ -1 +1 @@
-ca041e9ccd8524cdf0dde8d0342017d5c532a9e7a432f86e40ea21c979857822  osh
+00cf5af4e5d42b89f52e5b6f5802fa8faaca6283f02f95a0ba7df59bced16c11  osh
diff --git a/checksums/build/amd64/osh_0.27.0/bin/osh.sha256sums b/checksums/build/amd64/osh_0.27.0/bin/osh.sha256sums
@@ -1 +1 @@
-d79420ef4df4a663d5e50e71a9c0c46ff7f3462f3aa5cc19b351264410fd8bc6  osh
+f85cdae741df1c8ffea2a221a9bef5627c84690ba852d39edef97fcdab554be3  osh
diff --git a/checksums/build/amd64/osh_0.28.0/bin/osh.sha256sums b/checksums/build/amd64/osh_0.28.0/bin/osh.sha256sums
@@ -1 +1 @@
-93d9781ee97f4295be4585112eaf5163e454b2aa8751b0ff73fcf3643cc7f221  osh
+4d1b649117d6b5b01f7231eff8c0598a2c6cd79ffff4b7d2406b8b97f66d09c3  osh
diff --git a/checksums/build/amd64/osh_0.29.0/bin/osh.sha256sums b/checksums/build/amd64/osh_0.29.0/bin/osh.sha256sums
@@ -1 +1 @@
-cc69da88311e051b5446ee0b8ef3b85862dc5cc4dcde7525c6c4578af8f52575  osh
+41403ab2a4d2b3be39d2338f6f02a598216479a5ab089d6fd24b09055bece79b  osh
diff --git a/checksums/build/amd64/osh_0.30.0/bin/osh.sha256sums b/checksums/build/amd64/osh_0.30.0/bin/osh.sha256sums
@@ -1 +1 @@
-03a264098eba53d51b5ce4843a6ce6f9eca523beddce13f9f183ee01b648e8e8  osh
+2fa08b07548b95e2665c3d6fcafac29c826d47238cab6a5dde36c6e4b30ec79e  osh
diff --git a/checksums/build/amd64/osh_0.31.0/bin/osh.sha256sums b/checksums/build/amd64/osh_0.31.0/bin/osh.sha256sums
@@ -1 +1 @@
-9c786119b78d75b74ee4bafba324d653c4867a5e6bb4c8ef9f09a4726e6a3624  osh
+dfb3a8b14a01aefc8e33be53bcb7de59f09e40970046f86b339f3cd1dda29d4c  osh
diff --git a/checksums/build/amd64/osh_0.32.0/bin/osh.sha256sums b/checksums/build/amd64/osh_0.32.0/bin/osh.sha256sums
@@ -1 +1 @@
-f2830d79ed4b5aa0e87dea29f034276a51c60159e7a165127af7778bbf241f7b  osh
+e46b4c840b1c450a3d0ee79497dba9c0e319c037b4ee4eebbf11ee0e4b9dabe8  osh
diff --git a/checksums/build/amd64/osh_0.33.0/bin/osh.sha256sums b/checksums/build/amd64/osh_0.33.0/bin/osh.sha256sums
@@ -1 +1 @@
-723d1b945d3ffceb15e749fbc94b2a1d299e70a1dcd1a0ea26dabda9b115d2ff  osh
+67b234f43d3312f6052d8af2f0d367e8d0d5d757634a29b70a79efdb80781f65  osh
diff --git a/checksums/build/amd64/osh_0.34.0/bin/osh.sha256sums b/checksums/build/amd64/osh_0.34.0/bin/osh.sha256sums
@@ -1 +1 @@
-7bef4d456c6eab2ef75baf9153f1c3542b5b91d27ae6c02552f651d9f9c2703f  osh
+453aacb4f263181fc13382522d7ea44ba85a29c6fefccb37182cff41c545693b  osh
diff --git a/checksums/build/amd64/osh_0.35.0/bin/osh.sha256sums b/checksums/build/amd64/osh_0.35.0/bin/osh.sha256sums
@@ -1 +1 @@
-ebe267fdfdaae3b21869dba0f1e6e14489d33ebf0b2c7709725d60e5f4357dd1  osh
+ac9d9e2c6307cfe2ebce56258288e4d36327e8d2b2e96f74ffd3bca39cb62d3f  osh
diff --git a/checksums/build/amd64/osh_0.36.0/bin/osh.sha256sums b/checksums/build/amd64/osh_0.36.0/bin/osh.sha256sums
@@ -1 +1 @@
-43333f527843d13f5f9218e6ee632b096a8baabcbb49ad93a4fcff400df850ac  osh
+a9164aa1030cdfe9c2ea2706a02e26fefa4da0a8b33c6cdf11e08fcdc7f11fb0  osh
diff --git a/checksums/build/amd64/osh_0.37.0/bin/osh.sha256sums b/checksums/build/amd64/osh_0.37.0/bin/osh.sha256sums
@@ -1 +1 @@
-e1c96dce2ddae3cbdb263375ea0ad068d9474765a19c3365c483c960ea2c1565  osh
+6562748b366d70d023b9a41f49d7d392d80b069eefddb2820aedc0dc0af8dd78  osh
diff --git a/checksums/build/arm64/osh_0.25.0/bin/osh.sha256sums b/checksums/build/arm64/osh_0.25.0/bin/osh.sha256sums
@@ -1 +1 @@
-7428b1fda05ebd1f090af842884400144c8d788a52b943d2a6f34f0a73783c10  osh
+fb6b2540a84478353b9924e7c56d7c68d9a2c9d2f5d9cd8056c09fb8711b69ae  osh
diff --git a/checksums/build/arm64/osh_0.26.0/bin/osh.sha256sums b/checksums/build/arm64/osh_0.26.0/bin/osh.sha256sums
@@ -1 +1 @@
-391c4718be24b351e8343d3d4c764627322546a646d6915d2ffaa12edfd41c1d  osh
+99799dab4f4e179a7f76b993c44fa1de5ca25d7129b4c77444876f4bcb33a055  osh
diff --git a/checksums/build/arm64/osh_0.27.0/bin/osh.sha256sums b/checksums/build/arm64/osh_0.27.0/bin/osh.sha256sums
@@ -1 +1 @@
-e31dc775e972d8ea54aa26c9fe3bc806f11e16db62ad2df9dc44f73d51d4d7e0  osh
+5ed0eb0152e184abf853adaf1a82158f59a280ba6a03b54e087cee029456f6aa  osh
diff --git a/checksums/build/arm64/osh_0.28.0/bin/osh.sha256sums b/checksums/build/arm64/osh_0.28.0/bin/osh.sha256sums
@@ -1 +1 @@
-8e368031758bfddfcebdc1934871e8aab9e6148fe8f4b17db1df65e2fe8f2d6b  osh
+584a08baee6c4a2db6bd68a52c38eefaaff7216a90592f208558b121a5a5976c  osh
diff --git a/checksums/build/arm64/osh_0.29.0/bin/osh.sha256sums b/checksums/build/arm64/osh_0.29.0/bin/osh.sha256sums
@@ -1 +1 @@
-7073bdb31abc7f6e35f6b2b3c96b4d8dbea09bd1eff52bbbcc93c908b0817a0e  osh
+f4e70f953dcb68af03caf35c3e2bd93c98423f5fc64440397cbe0709a79f4259  osh
diff --git a/checksums/build/arm64/osh_0.30.0/bin/osh.sha256sums b/checksums/build/arm64/osh_0.30.0/bin/osh.sha256sums
@@ -1 +1 @@
-3f71909095df2f9be6c8acc6525a8c9033c0eabfdff5eba62138591e8e921b32  osh
+931f87ff8110d82417587ff40bf497996a2603a329d0dcdc2c30570263650439  osh
diff --git a/checksums/build/arm64/osh_0.31.0/bin/osh.sha256sums b/checksums/build/arm64/osh_0.31.0/bin/osh.sha256sums
@@ -1 +1 @@
-aab0200ad10e7e4cbdb792956497703ab2db98602a0b6b84fd473868d431f4a2  osh
+2621ae77ee017518d92b724671f467fefb0bb597cb44c7af054c836df31c562c  osh
diff --git a/checksums/build/arm64/osh_0.32.0/bin/osh.sha256sums b/checksums/build/arm64/osh_0.32.0/bin/osh.sha256sums
@@ -1 +1 @@
-29220f7b51c5babf58c4c8561bb0210144546f91905fc8e9521cc6105464e412  osh
+5311322e15b02ae20591ce9e015d19161dea2ee57f635e07522a86626304f5b9  osh
diff --git a/checksums/build/arm64/osh_0.33.0/bin/osh.sha256sums b/checksums/build/arm64/osh_0.33.0/bin/osh.sha256sums
@@ -1 +1 @@
-39199b556d27deed63de14a9c4265a7a53a9628caa7ce0fc4a8284c718bf38a4  osh
+f9047961e220ccd1b78d11a68ef78bb5982c0009629eb51b492705f5a60c8e68  osh
diff --git a/checksums/build/arm64/osh_0.34.0/bin/osh.sha256sums b/checksums/build/arm64/osh_0.34.0/bin/osh.sha256sums
@@ -1 +1 @@
-797781658322487e7da079066349e1271b9f42b8b2829ad96cd4a22353e69111  osh
+93719ca79029d48c81f10b021647f59bf2c663bacde0ca98957ea1762139465b  osh
diff --git a/checksums/build/arm64/osh_0.35.0/bin/osh.sha256sums b/checksums/build/arm64/osh_0.35.0/bin/osh.sha256sums
@@ -1 +1 @@
-4102af66d0e7f8136faac750df88044f5d69c10cd9de618bef0b0d4566409465  osh
+2f567305fb8946a8a3b4e33c82424868f7be64d03219d3b359dce94f7a4c5889  osh
diff --git a/checksums/build/arm64/osh_0.36.0/bin/osh.sha256sums b/checksums/build/arm64/osh_0.36.0/bin/osh.sha256sums
@@ -1 +1 @@
-09c7d8755f82b37ed85726c0c68a943373142c66ad3acc09241a6d7efcdd5808  osh
+10abb1f932e21c6ff8b37e649677f17e5891f389a9bc4bf86ad70dd4910faca4  osh
diff --git a/checksums/build/arm64/osh_0.37.0/bin/osh.sha256sums b/checksums/build/arm64/osh_0.37.0/bin/osh.sha256sums
@@ -1 +1 @@
-068e560d4ce73339113f7ae85d6d5b70e58a19fbfd252c9621847a50322365a3  osh
+1c80973662eec165b4c840839b43d9ef8f6975903f25c8220294c641c50f8e87  osh
diff --git a/checksums/sources/readline/readline-8.3.tar.gz.sha256sums b/checksums/sources/readline/readline-8.3.tar.gz.sha256sums
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+fe5383204467828cd495ee8d1d3c037a7eba1389c22bc6a041f627976f9061cc  readline-8.3.tar.gz
diff --git a/common/readline.sh b/common/readline.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,95 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env sh
+
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2025 Alexandre Gomes Gaigalas <alganet@gmail.com>
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: ISC
+
+# Static GNU readline built with musl-cross against the in-tree static ncurses -
+# pinned version for reproducible builds. Provides readline/readline.h +
+# libreadline.a for shells that want full GNU readline line editing/history/
+# completion (e.g. osh --readline).
+#
+# NOTE ON LICENSING: GNU readline is GPLv3. A binary that statically links this
+# library is a GPLv3 combined work. It is provided here only for osh, whose
+# interactive features require the full GNU readline API (libedit's readline
+# compatibility layer is missing functions Oils calls); a binary built without it
+# stays permissively licensed.
+. "${SHVR_DIR_SELF}/common/ncurses.sh"
+
+SHVR_READLINE_VERSION="8.3"
+SHVR_READLINE_PREFIX="${SHVR_DIR_SRC}/readline/readline-${SHVR_READLINE_VERSION}-install"
+
+shvr_download_readline ()
+{
+	mkdir -p "${SHVR_DIR_SRC}/readline"
+
+	if ! test -f "${SHVR_DIR_SRC}/readline/readline-${SHVR_READLINE_VERSION}.tar.gz"
+	then
+		shvr_fetch \
+			"https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/readline/readline-${SHVR_READLINE_VERSION}.tar.gz" \
+			"${SHVR_DIR_SRC}/readline/readline-${SHVR_READLINE_VERSION}.tar.gz"
+	fi
+
+	# readline links the terminal library; it uses our in-tree static ncurses.
+	shvr_download_ncurses
+}
+
+shvr_build_readline ()
+{
+	if test -f "${SHVR_READLINE_PREFIX}/lib/libreadline.a" &&
+		test -f "${SHVR_READLINE_PREFIX}/.shvr-merged"
+	then
+		return 0
+	fi
+
+	# readline needs a termcap/terminfo library (tgetent); supply the in-tree one.
+	shvr_build_ncurses
+
+	readline_srcdir="${SHVR_DIR_SRC}/readline/readline-${SHVR_READLINE_VERSION}-src"
+	mkdir -p "${readline_srcdir}"
+
+	shvr_untar \
+		"${SHVR_DIR_SRC}/readline/readline-${SHVR_READLINE_VERSION}.tar.gz" \
+		"${readline_srcdir}"
+
+	cd "${readline_srcdir}"
+
+	SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=1 \
+	TZ=UTC \
+	CC="$(shvr_musl_cc)" \
+	AR="$(shvr_musl_ar)" \
+	RANLIB="$(shvr_musl_ranlib)" \
+	CFLAGS="-static -frandom-seed=1 $(shvr_ncurses_cflags)" \
+	LDFLAGS="-Wl,--build-id=none $(shvr_ncurses_ldflags)" \
+	./configure \
+		--host="$(shvr_musl_target)" \
+		--prefix="${SHVR_READLINE_PREFIX}" \
+		--disable-shared \
+		--enable-static \
+		--with-curses
+
+	make -j"$(nproc)"
+	make install
+
+	# Consumers (osh's detect/link) link a bare `-lreadline` with no `-lncurses`,
+	# but libreadline.a references termcap symbols (tgetent...). Merge the in-tree
+	# ncurses into libreadline.a so the static library is self-contained. ar -M
+	# (MRI script) preserves all members from both archives; the cross ar/ranlib
+	# are deterministic (musl-cross-make --enable-deterministic-archives).
+	"$(shvr_musl_ar)" -M <<-MRI
+		CREATE ${SHVR_READLINE_PREFIX}/lib/libreadline-merged.a
+		ADDLIB ${SHVR_READLINE_PREFIX}/lib/libreadline.a
+		ADDLIB ${SHVR_READLINE_PREFIX}/lib/libhistory.a
+		ADDLIB ${SHVR_NCURSES_PREFIX}/lib/libncurses.a
+		SAVE
+		END
+	MRI
+	mv "${SHVR_READLINE_PREFIX}/lib/libreadline-merged.a" \
+		"${SHVR_READLINE_PREFIX}/lib/libreadline.a"
+	"$(shvr_musl_ranlib)" "${SHVR_READLINE_PREFIX}/lib/libreadline.a"
+	touch "${SHVR_READLINE_PREFIX}/.shvr-merged"
+}
+
+shvr_readline_prefix ()
+{
+	echo "${SHVR_READLINE_PREFIX}"
+}
diff --git a/variants/osh.sh b/variants/osh.sh
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: ISC
 
 . "${SHVR_DIR_SELF}/common/musl-cross-make.sh"
+. "${SHVR_DIR_SELF}/common/readline.sh"
 
 shvr_static_osh ()
 {
@@ -45,6 +46,9 @@ shvr_download_osh ()
 	then
 		shvr_fetch "https://oils.pub/download/oils-for-unix-${version}.tar.gz" "${build_srcdir}.tar.gz"
 	fi
+
+	# osh links GNU readline for interactive line editing/history/completion.
+	shvr_download_readline
 }
 
 shvr_build_osh ()
@@ -57,6 +61,15 @@ shvr_build_osh ()
 
 	cd "${build_srcdir}"
 
+	# Build static GNU readline (against the in-tree ncurses) so osh gets line
+	# editing, history and completion. Its libreadline.a is self-contained
+	# (termcap merged in), which matters because osh probes and links a bare
+	# `-lreadline` with no `-lncurses`. NOTE: GNU readline is GPLv3, so the osh
+	# binary is a GPL combined work (Oils itself is Apache-2.0). osh has no
+	# non-GPL editor: libedit's readline-compat is missing functions Oils calls.
+	shvr_build_readline
+	cd "${build_srcdir}"
+
 	# Static musl build with reproducible flags
 	export SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=1
 	export TZ=UTC
@@ -72,10 +85,19 @@ shvr_build_osh ()
 		exec "$(shvr_musl_cxx)" -static -Wl,--build-id=none "\$@"
 	WRAPPER
 	chmod +x "${build_srcdir}/.musl-bin/c++"
+	# configure's feature probes (cc_quiet) default to 'cc'; without a musl 'cc'
+	# they would use the host gcc/glibc, which cannot link our musl static
+	# libreadline.a, so readline detection silently fails and osh builds without
+	# it. Provide a musl 'cc' wrapper so probes match the actual (musl) build.
+	cat > "${build_srcdir}/.musl-bin/cc" <<-WRAPPER
+		#!/bin/sh
+		exec "$(shvr_musl_cc)" -static -Wl,--build-id=none "\$@"
+	WRAPPER
+	chmod +x "${build_srcdir}/.musl-bin/cc"
 	export PATH="${build_srcdir}/.musl-bin:$PATH"
 
 	./configure \
-		--without-readline \
+		--readline "$(shvr_readline_prefix)" \
 		--prefix="${SHVR_DIR_OUT}/osh_$version"
 
 	_build/oils.sh

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`1`		`-365241b29d2881f70f6b6de9f55c7b8cddd6efea7953584b0746b5c33267ee55 osh`
	`1`	`+ea170512f2b75a5c1f8ecdd268c16f51c324bc0bee14733cc7ec25bd20a0dc0a osh`
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`1`		`-ca041e9ccd8524cdf0dde8d0342017d5c532a9e7a432f86e40ea21c979857822 osh`
	`1`	`+00cf5af4e5d42b89f52e5b6f5802fa8faaca6283f02f95a0ba7df59bced16c11 osh`
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`1`		`-d79420ef4df4a663d5e50e71a9c0c46ff7f3462f3aa5cc19b351264410fd8bc6 osh`
	`1`	`+f85cdae741df1c8ffea2a221a9bef5627c84690ba852d39edef97fcdab554be3 osh`
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`1`		`-93d9781ee97f4295be4585112eaf5163e454b2aa8751b0ff73fcf3643cc7f221 osh`
	`1`	`+4d1b649117d6b5b01f7231eff8c0598a2c6cd79ffff4b7d2406b8b97f66d09c3 osh`
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`1`		`-cc69da88311e051b5446ee0b8ef3b85862dc5cc4dcde7525c6c4578af8f52575 osh`
	`1`	`+41403ab2a4d2b3be39d2338f6f02a598216479a5ab089d6fd24b09055bece79b osh`
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`1`		`-03a264098eba53d51b5ce4843a6ce6f9eca523beddce13f9f183ee01b648e8e8 osh`
	`1`	`+2fa08b07548b95e2665c3d6fcafac29c826d47238cab6a5dde36c6e4b30ec79e osh`
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`1`		`-9c786119b78d75b74ee4bafba324d653c4867a5e6bb4c8ef9f09a4726e6a3624 osh`
	`1`	`+dfb3a8b14a01aefc8e33be53bcb7de59f09e40970046f86b339f3cd1dda29d4c osh`
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`1`		`-f2830d79ed4b5aa0e87dea29f034276a51c60159e7a165127af7778bbf241f7b osh`
	`1`	`+e46b4c840b1c450a3d0ee79497dba9c0e319c037b4ee4eebbf11ee0e4b9dabe8 osh`
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`1`		`-723d1b945d3ffceb15e749fbc94b2a1d299e70a1dcd1a0ea26dabda9b115d2ff osh`
	`1`	`+67b234f43d3312f6052d8af2f0d367e8d0d5d757634a29b70a79efdb80781f65 osh`
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`@@ -1 +1 @@`
`1`		`-7bef4d456c6eab2ef75baf9153f1c3542b5b91d27ae6c02552f651d9f9c2703f osh`
	`1`	`+453aacb4f263181fc13382522d7ea44ba85a29c6fefccb37182cff41c545693b osh`