cli/sql: trigger history search by typing a prefix + up arrow

[andreimatei]

I want the history search to be activated when I press the up arrow after typing a statement prefix. The search should be initialized with that prefix. So, if I type "alt" then up arrow, I want to search for the last statement that started with "alt". And then up arrow and down arrow would cycle through commands with that prefix.

You get that in bash with this:

bind '"\e[A":history-search-backward'
bind '"\e[B":history-search-forward'

I think it's inspired by Matlab's console, and it's so good! I never want to use a terminal without it again.

Jira issue: CRDB-5874

[andreimatei]

cc @knz

[knz]

You can customize bindings with libedit in your ~/.inputrc. Feel free to dig into libedit and figure out what's the equivalent way to do this.

Offhand remark: we've made the choice to rely on a 3rd party moderately standard library precisely because we don't want to be baking custom code around an area of unix which is extremely hard to get right. I am not keen to go and tweak that code to address every need under the sun. In my opinion: if libedit supports this with a custom inputrc, then use that. If it doesn't, tough luck.

If it works in bash and not in libedit, that's just a sign that GNU readline is better. But we knew that already. If it was not for licensing, we'd use GNU readline too.

[github-actions]

We have marked this issue as stale because it has been inactive for
18 months. If this issue is still relevant, removing the stale label
or adding a comment will keep it active. Otherwise, we'll close it in
5 days to keep the issue queue tidy. Thank you for your contribution
to CockroachDB!

[github-actions]

We have marked this issue as stale because it has been inactive for
18 months. If this issue is still relevant, removing the stale label
or adding a comment will keep it active. Otherwise, we'll close it in
10 days to keep the issue queue tidy. Thank you for your contribution
to CockroachDB!