Readline stops working after running 'top'

eggplantbren · 2012-06-11 21:39:36

Hi Archers,

I have been having an annoying problem with readline for the last couple of months. I like to use the history-search-backward feature a lot, where you can start typing a command and then press the up arrow to get history that starts with the same few characters. I love doing this. However, sometimes it just doesn't work and up just goes to the last command.

I finally figured out what factor was causing this. If I open a new terminal, everything is fine. However, the instant I run 'top', readline stops working properly. Does anyone know how to fix this? Might it be a bug? I remember 'top' did change appearance with a package upgrade some time in the not too distant past, so the problem might have been in that update. I'm not sure what package provides 'top' (Update: just did a pacman -Qo /usr/bin/top and it's procps-ng 3.3.3-1).

Last edited by eggplantbren (2012-06-11 21:55:00)

fsckd · 2012-06-11 23:10:22

What terminal emulator? Does this happen with other curses apps?

eggplantbren · 2012-06-12 01:33:25

I'm using gnome-terminal, but I had the same issue with lxterminal, so if it's related to that, then it's something that's common between those two terminal emulators. I don't know what you mean by curses apps.

eggplantbren · 2012-06-12 03:49:32

I just did a couple of experiments:

* Running nano inside of gnome-terminal did not affect the readline history behaviour
* Running top in a regular terminal (no X) did not affect the readline history behaviour
* Running top in xterm did affect the readline history behaviour

Weird...

fsckd · 2012-06-12 19:00:11

I tried and I see the same issue. I don't know what top is doing that can cause this.

Instead of top, as an alternative you can try htop or atop. I can say htop does not have the same problem.

eggplantbren · 2012-06-12 23:13:25

Thanks, I'll give htop a try. I think I might file a bug report against procps-ng, because I am quite sure that the readline problem started occurring right when the procps-ng update made top look different. I guess the worst case scenario is that my bug report is invalid and then they can ignore it.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-06-11 21:39:36

Readline stops working after running 'top'

#2 2012-06-11 23:10:22

Re: Readline stops working after running 'top'

#3 2012-06-12 01:33:25

Re: Readline stops working after running 'top'

#4 2012-06-12 03:49:32

Re: Readline stops working after running 'top'

#5 2012-06-12 19:00:11

Re: Readline stops working after running 'top'

#6 2012-06-12 23:13:25

Re: Readline stops working after running 'top'

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