Why is my readline / .inputrc configuration being ignored?

Question

I have a configuration line in my .inputrc:

set enable-bracketed-paste on  # Insert paste as a string rather than possibly running it

This is valid when typed at the command line:

bind 'set enable-bracketed-paste on'

However the variable is not being set when I start bash v4.4.23.

Why is this line being ignored?

Answer 1

TL;DR:

Put comments on separate lines to configuration.

A comment at the end of a line causes readline to silently ignore the whole line if the line would otherwise be valid.

---

The manual does say:

Lines beginning with a ‘#’ are comments.

It doesn't say that a comment will cause an otherwise valid config line to be ignored.

This is strange, because the line:

set foobar on  # baz

Results in:

readline: /home/ravi/.config/readline/inputrc: line 34: foobar: unknown variable name

Meaning that lines with a # at the end of them are indeed parsed for validity. They're just ignored if they would otherwise be valid.

Answer 2

The parser for readline doesn't seem to be that good:

 $ bind 'set "enable-bracketed-paste" "on" '; echo $?; bind -v | grep 'bracketed'
 0
 readline: "enable-bracketed-paste": unknown variable name

 $ bind 'set enable-bracketed-paste "on" '; echo $?; bind -v | grep 'bracketed'
 0
 set enable-bracketed-paste off

 $ bind 'set enable-bracketed-paste on '; echo $?; bind -v | grep 'bracketed'
 0
 set enable-bracketed-paste on

 $ bind 'set enable-bracketed-paste on .'; echo $?; bind -v | grep 'bracketed'
 0
 set enable-bracketed-paste off

It seems that any string after an option is seen as part of the option (maybe?).

The manual states that comments are only at the start of the line, so, I recommend you to stick to that rule. Instead, use:

 # Insert paste as a string rather than possibly running it
 set enable-bracketed-paste on