Introduction
============

This is GNU Bash, version 2.0.  Bash is the GNU Project's Bourne
Again SHell, a complete implementation of the POSIX.2 shell spec,
but also with interactive command line editing, job control on
architectures that support it, csh-like features such as history
substitution and brace expansion, and a slew of other features. 
For more information on the features of Bash that are new to this
type of shell, see the file `doc/features.texi'.  There is also a
large man page.  The manual page is the definitive description of
the shell's features. 

See the file CWRU/POSIX.NOTES for a discussion of how Bash differs
from the POSIX.2 spec and a description of the Bash `posix mode'.

There are some user-visible incompatibilities between this version
of Bash and the previous version, bash-1.14.  For details, see the
file COMPAT.

Bash is free software, distributed under the terms of the GNU Public
License, version 2.  For more information, see the file COPYING.

To compile Bash, try typing `./configure', then `make'.  Bash
auto-configures the build process, so no further intervention
should be necessary.  Bash builds with `gcc' by default if it is
available.  If you want to use `cc' instead, type

	CC=cc ./configure

if you are using a Bourne-style shell.  If you are not, the following
may work:

	env CC=cc ./configure

Read the file INSTALL in this directory for more information about how
to customize and control the build process.  The file NOTES contains
platform-specific installation and configuration information.

If you are a csh user and wish to convert your csh aliases to Bash
aliases, you may wish to use the script `examples/misc/alias-conv.sh'
as a starting point.

Reporting Bugs
==============

Bug reports for 2.0 should be sent to:

	bug-bash@prep.ai.mit.edu

using the `bashbug' program that is built and installed at the same
time as bash.

The discussion list `bug-bash@prep.ai.mit.edu' often contains
information about new ports of Bash, or discussions of new
features or behavior changes that people would like.  This
mailing list is also available as a usenet newsgroup:
gnu.bash.bug. 

When you send a bug report to bug-bash@prep.ai.mit.edu, please include:

	* the version number of Bash
	* the machine and OS that it is running on (see .machine or .made)
	* a list of the compilation flags or the contents of `config.h', if
	  appropriate
	* a description of the bug
	* a recipe for recreating the bug reliably
	* a fix for the bug if you have one!

The `bashbug' program includes much of this automatically.

If you would like to contact the Bash maintainers directly, send mail to
bash-maintainers@prep.ai.mit.edu.

While the Bash maintainers do not promise to fix all bugs, we would
like this shell to be the best that we can make it.

Enjoy!

Chet Ramey
chet@po.cwru.edu
