# Readline history bug on Windows

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/readline-history-bug-on-windows/129312>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [February 16, 2008, 3:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/readline-history-bug-on-windows/129312 "2008-02-16T15:52:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![h3rald](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/dfb087/32.png) [@h3rald](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/h3rald)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2008, 3:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/readline-history-bug-on-windows/129312/1 "2008-02-16T15:52:12Z")

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I just wanted to know if anyone had any idea on how to solve a rather  
unpleasant bug involving the readline library on Windows.  
I’m using readline in a Ruby program of mine and apparently whenever I  
try to re-edit a long line I previously typed in, the cursor goes up  
instead of left and the text gets garbled.

Apparently it is a known problem:

[http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.ruby/browse\_thread/thread/e70c06bd07e5bf88/b9e480f26723c72c?lnk=gst&q=irb+readline+windows#b9e480f26723c72c](http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.ruby/browse_thread/thread/e70c06bd07e5bf88/b9e480f26723c72c?lnk=gst&q=irb+readline+windows#b9e480f26723c72c)

but afaik no one came up with a solution yet. People tried to disable  
cmd.exe’s history but this didn’t solve the problem, so here’s another  
idea: is there any way toselectively disable readline’s history on  
Windows so that it is then possible to use readline for just tab  
completion as history is already provided by default by cmd.exe?

Thanks in advance,

Fabio