cle(1) cle(1)
October 1999
NAME
cle - Command Line Editor
SYNOPSYS
cle [options] <program> [<arguments>]
DESCRIPTION
Cle is a Command Line Editor. It provides the
editing/history/completion commands of the readline(3) package to any
line-oriented Unix command. For instance,
$ cle ftp foo.bar.org
provides editing/history/completion commands to the ftp command.
Since most modern shells allow you to define aliases, you can define a
simple alias such as
$ alias ftp="cle \ftp" (bash or zsh syntax)
or
$ alias ftp cle ftp (tcsh or csh syntax)
to always uses cle with the ftp command.
OPTIONS
The following options are recognized by cle:
-v, --version
output version information and exit.
-s N, --size=N
set the size of the history to n lines. If n > 0 the history is
saved at program exit. Default size is 100.
FILES
~/.inputrc
Since cle uses the readline package, it can be customized by the
- 1 - Formatted: November 30, 2025
cle(1) cle(1)
October 1999
file "~/.inputrc". When cle is run it initializes the readline
package and gives it the name of the application it controls.
This can be used to define different bindings for different
commands. An example is given below:
$if ftp
"\C-xl": "dir\C-m"
$endif
$if stk
"\C-xl": "(system \"ls -ls\")\C-m"
$endif
$if ed
"\C-x-l": "!ls -l\C-m"
$endif
See the file "src/sample-inputrc" file for a more complete
example. See also standard readline documentation package for
details on the available "bindable" functions and on the format
of this file.
PARENTHESIS FLASHING
The readline version compiled with cle uses parentheses flashing
(i.e when you type a closing parenthesis, the corresponding
opening parenthesis flashes). Rebind the closing parentheses is
with "self-insert" to get rid of this feature.
Example:
$if ftp
")": self-insert
"]": self-insert
"}": self-insert
$end
~/.XXX-history
When a cle'ed application leaves, the state of the history is
saved in a file whose name is ~/.XXX-history, where XXX is the
name of the application. If the size is of the history is 0, the
history file is deleted. This avoids the accumulation of file in
the user home directory.
SEE ALSO
readline(3)
- 2 - Formatted: November 30, 2025
