Most often, the minibuffer is used to read text as a string. It can
also be used to read a Lisp object in textual form. The most basic
-primitive for minibuffer input is @code{read-from-minibuffer}; it can do
-either one. There are also specialized commands for reading
-commands, variables, file names, etc. (@pxref{Completion}).
+primitive for minibuffer input is @code{read-from-minibuffer}; it can
+do either one. Regular expressions (@pxref{Regular Expressions}) are
+a special kind of strings; use @code{read-regexp} for their minibuffer
+input. There are also specialized commands for reading commands,
+variables, file names, etc.@: (@pxref{Completion}).
In most cases, you should not call minibuffer input functions in the
middle of a Lisp function. Instead, do all minibuffer input as part of
@end smallexample
@end defun
+@defun read-regexp prompt &optional default
+This function reads a regular expression as a string from the
+minibuffer and returns it. The argument @var{prompt} is used as in
+@code{read-from-minibuffer}. The keymap used is
+@code{minibuffer-local-map}, and @code{regexp-history} is used as the
+history list (@pxref{Minibuffer History, regexp-history}).
+
+The optional argument @var{default}, if non-@code{nil}, specifies a
+default value to return if the user enters null input. As
+in @code{read-from-minibuffer} it should be a string, a list of
+strings, or @code{nil} which is equivalent to an empty string. When
+@var{default} is a string, that string is the default value. When it
+is a list of strings, the first string is the default value. To this
+default @code{read-regexp} adds a few other useful candidates, and
+passes them to @code{read-from-minibuffer} to make them available to
+the user as the ``future minibuffer history list'' (@pxref{Minibuffer
+History, future list,, emacs, The GNU Emacs Manual}). These
+candidates are:
+
+@itemize @minus
+@item
+The Word or symbol at point.
+@item
+The last regexp used in an incremental search.
+@item
+The last string used in an incremental search.
+@item
+The last string or pattern used in query-replace commands.
+@end itemize
+
+This function works by calling the @code{read-from-minibuffer}
+function, after computing the list of defaults as described above.
+@end defun
+
@defvar minibuffer-allow-text-properties
If this variable is @code{nil}, then @code{read-from-minibuffer} strips
all text properties from the minibuffer input before returning it.
If @var{require-match} is @code{nil}, the exit commands work regardless
of the input in the minibuffer. If @var{require-match} is @code{t}, the
usual minibuffer exit commands won't exit unless the input completes to
-an element of @var{collection}. If @var{require-match} is neither
-@code{nil} nor @code{t}, then the exit commands won't exit unless the
-input already in the buffer matches an element of @var{collection}.
+an element of @var{collection}. If @var{require-match} is
+@code{confirm-only}, the user can exit with any input, but she will
+asked for a confirmation if the input is not an element of
+@var{collection}. Any other value of @var{require-match} behaves like
+@code{t}, except that the exit commands won't exit if it does non-null
+completion.
However, empty input is always permitted, regardless of the value of
@var{require-match}; in that case, @code{completing-read} returns the
function @code{read-file-name}.
@end defvar
-@defvar minibuffer-local-must-match-filename-map
+@defvar minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map
This is like @code{minibuffer-local-must-match-map}
except that it does not bind @key{SPC}. This keymap is used by the
function @code{read-file-name}.
@code{read-file-name} uses
@code{minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map} as the keymap if
@var{existing} is @code{nil}, and uses
-@code{minibuffer-local-must-match-filename-map} if @var{existing} is
+@code{minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map} if @var{existing} is
non-@code{nil}. @xref{Completion Commands}.
The argument @var{directory} specifies the directory to use for
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