GNU readline is a software library created and maintained by the GNU project. It is licensed under the GPL. It provides line-editing capabilities. As of April 2005, the current version is 5.0. Newer features include multibyte (Unicode) character support.

For instance, in a readline-enabled application, pressing C-b (CTRL-B) moves the cursor back one space, whereas C-f moves the cursor forward one space. Readline supports a variety of advanced features, including a kill ring (a more flexible version of a copy/paste clipboard) and tab completion. As a cross-platform library, readline allows many applications on various systems to exhibit identical line-editing behavior.

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