rlwrap for Command Line History and Editing in SQL*Plus and RMAN

The rlwrap (readline wrapper) utility provides a command history and editing of keyboard input for any other command. This is comes in handy when we are using sqlplus or rman on linux, which don't come with command line history feature.

This post will explain how to install and configure rlwrap for sqlplus and rman.


Download the latest rlwrap software from the following link:

• rlwrap-0.42.tar.gz

Unzip and install the software using following commands just follow the order.

 gunzip rlwrap*.gz  
 tar -xvf rlwrap*.tar  
 cd rlwrap*  
 ./configure  
 make  
 make check  
 make install  

Then just use rlwrap before sqlplus or rman command, I have listed some below.

 [oracle@oracleasm1 ~]$ rlwrap sqlplus /nolog  
 [oracle@oracleasm1 ~]$ rlwrap sqlplus / as sysdba  
 [oracle@oracleasm1 ~]$ rlwrap rman target /  
 [oracle@oracleasm1 ~]$ rlwrap rman target sys/pass@db01 auxiliary sys/pass@dr01