filename completion in gnuplot does not complete the boundary

Question

I am using gnuplot for long time, and one problem that I always feel is it is not closing the " on tab completion of filename. e.g.

gnuplot> p 'fo<Tab> 

will give me:

gnuplot> p 'fort.10 <cursor here, see the missing '> 

while I would expect to have:

gnuplot> p 'fort.10' <cursor here> 

I am using the rpm from fedora, which gives:

 show version long 

        G N U P L O T 
        Version 4.6 patchlevel 3    last modified 2013-04-12 
        Build System: Linux x86_64 

        Copyright (C) 1986-1993, 1998, 2004, 2007-2013 
        Thomas Williams, Colin Kelley and many others 

        gnuplot home:     http://www.gnuplot.info 
        faq, bugs, etc:   type "help FAQ" 
        immediate help:   type "help"  (plot window: hit 'h') 
Compile options: 
-READLINE  +LIBEDITLINE  +HISTORY   
-BACKWARDS_COMPATIBILITY  +BINARY_DATA   
+GD_PNG  +GD_JPEG  +GD_TTF  +GD_GIF  +ANIMATION   
-USE_CWDRC  +X11  +X11_POLYGON  +MULTIBYTE  +X11_EXTERNAL +USE_MOUSE  +HIDDEN3D_QUADTREE   
+DATASTRINGS  +HISTOGRAMS  +OBJECTS  +STRINGVARS  +MACROS  +IMAGE  +USER_LINETYPES +STATS 

GNUPLOT_DRIVER_DIR = "/usr/libexec/gnuplot/4.6" 
GNUPLOT_PS_DIR     = "/usr/share/gnuplot/4.6/PostScript" 
HELPFILE           = "/usr/share/gnuplot/4.6/gnuplot.gih" 

After compiling

-READLINE  +LIBEDITLINE  +HISTORY  
-BACKWARDS_COMPATIBILITY  +BINARY_DATA  
+GD_PNG  +GD_JPEG  +GD_TTF  +GD_GIF  +ANIMATION  
-USE_CWDRC  +X11  +X11_POLYGON  +MULTIBYTE  +X11_EXTERNAL +USE_MOUSE  +HIDDEN3D_QUADTREE  
+DATASTRINGS  +HISTOGRAMS  +OBJECTS  +STRINGVARS  +MACROS  +IMAGE  +USER_LINETYPES +STATS 

GNUPLOT_DRIVER_DIR = "/usr/libexec/gnuplot/4.6"
GNUPLOT_PS_DIR     = "/usr/share/gnuplot/4.6/PostScript"
HELPFILE           = "/usr/share/gnuplot/4.6/gnuplot.gih"

Answer 1

That is a problem with gnuplot's command-line editing. The same happens with Debian's gnuplot binary.

If you compile gnuplot yourself against libreadline, the completion works fine. This is a license issue: gnuplot isn't licensed under the GPL so that it is forbidden to distribute gnuplot binaries which are linked against it, see https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/1998/06/msg01162.html

Its fine if you compile gnuplot yourself and link it against GNU libreadline, but you're not allowed to distribute the resulting binary.