After nearly three years of development, a new version of the GNU Bash command interpreter 5.3 has been released, which is used by default in most Linux distributions. At the same time, the readline 8.3 library, utilized in bash for command line editing, has also been released. <\/p>\n
Key improvements include: <\/p>\n
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New command substitution forms '${ command; }' and '${|command;}' have been implemented, allowing the capture of command output without spawning a separate child process and without using unnamed pipes. The results of command execution are returned as replacement results or stored in the REPLY variable.\n
A new variable GLOBSORT has been added to define the sorting method when completing file paths. For example, you can choose to sort by name (GLOBSORT=name), size (GLOBSORT=size), or modification time (GLOBSORT=mtime), and also specify ascending (from smaller to larger) or descending (from larger to smaller) sort order (for instance, with 'GLOBSORT=-size', the largest files will be shown first).\n
The built-in command 'compgen' has been enhanced with the '-V varname' option to save generated completions into a variable instead of outputting to standard output.\n
The built-in command 'read' now includes the '-E' option, which uses the readline library for auto-completion rules when entering data in bash.\n
The built-in command 'source' has been added with the '-p PATH' option, allowing the override of the search list in file paths (the specified value is used instead of the $PATH variable).\n
The source code has been updated to the C23 standard. Support for compilation by compilers in 'K&R C' mode (the style described by Kernighan and Ritchie in 'The C Programming Language') has been discontinued.\n
The built-in command 'umask' is now fully compliant with POSIX specifications.\n
A new loadable command 'kv' has been added, which forms an associative array based on a set of data in 'key value' format.\n
A new loadable command 'strptime' has been added, which converts the textual representation of date and time into epoch time (the number of seconds since January 1, 1970).\n
A new loadable command 'fltexpr' has been added, allowing arithmetic operations with floating-point numbers similar to the 'let' command.\n
A dynamically set variable BASH_MONOSECONDS has been added, which contains the current value of the system's monotonic clock that continuously increases, even when the time is changed backward.\n
In POSIX mode, string comparisons in the 'test' command using the '' operators are now performed with regard to the current locale.\n
In the 'bind -x' command, it's now allowed to separate the key and the invoked command with a space if the sequence is enclosed in double quotes.\n
In the new version of Readline, the option «search-ignore-case» has been introduced for case-insensitive searching in the history. A command «export-completions» has been added for exporting word completion options for processing in other processes. Additionally, a command «execute-named-command» has been added for executing a command whose name is received from the standard input. <\/ul>\n