Comment # 2 on bug 918028 from Felix Miata

(In reply to Torsten Duwe from comment #1)
> Do I get this right: you want the grub shell to be built with
> readline support (again)?

I wish it to work like it did, whether that means "readline support" or
whatever it takes. It seems strange that ancient technology with no upstream
support would have any reason to be significantly changed, as apparently
happened with 13.1's grub-0.97-194.1.2.i586.rpm @ 338900 bytes going to 13.2's
grub-0.97-200.1.3.i586.rpm @ 535053 bytes. I was very puzzled to see such a
change in size, and surprised to see as many changelog entries as occurred
between the two.

> It was never meant to be used interactively in openSUSE,
> it was always to "do what I say, install this loader over there".
> The instructions stored in /etc/grub.conf.

That's simply one use for it. I haven't used grub scripts in many years.
AFAICT, only perl-Bootloader and yast2-bootloader use them here. 

> How are you using the grub shell?

The following man section I learned early on, which describes how I most often
use the grub shell.
http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/legacy/grub.html#Installing-GRUB-natively

My typical procedure:
1-clone[1] to an empty or no longer useful partition that's already defined in
the partition table
2-tune2fs (give the clone a unique UUID and volume label)
3-# grub
    a-grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
    b-grub> root (hd#,{newlocation})
    c-grub> <up><home><del><del><del><del>setup<enter>
    d-grub> quit
4-mount the clone, and on it:
    a-reconfigure /boot/grub/menu.lst
    b-reconfigure /etc/fstab
    c-reconfigure /etc/grub.conf
5-update master bootloader as required to include the clone, both via
chainload, via configfile, and via a copy of the default stanza derived from
the clone's menu.lst
6-boot the clone

[1] Definition of "clone" as used here is as described on
http://www.dfsee.com/dfsee/ :
"Cloning can make an exact copy of (part of) a partition or disk to another
area on the same or another disk. This can be used as a very fast backup
facility (speeds of 30 MB/sec are not uncommon) and to move partitions
arround."

> Or do you mean the grub loader proper?

By this do you mean boot time use? I do use its editing functionality when I've
fouled a stanza and wish to proceed to boot the fouled target anyway instead of
booting something else to fix the mistake.