Command history in python shell under linux

[Dave Kuhlman]

Joonas Paalasmaa wrote:

> Stephen Boulet wrote:
>> Where is readline support enabled?
>> 
>> I tried running './configure --help' in the source directory for
>> python, but readline wasn't one of the options...
> 
> Uncomment and modify some readline-related lines in Modules/Setup
> after running ./configure

Trying to save you a bit of frustration in advance ...  When I 
recompiled the source after uncommenting the readline line in 
Modules/Setup, I believe I had to install the package 
libreadline-dev in order to get a header file needed by readline.

A couple of additional suggestions:

1. For a fancier Python shell, take a look at IPython:

    http://www-hep.colorado.edu/~fperez/ipython/

2. The following in the Python standard distribution shows (a) how 
to set up history that lasts across invocations of the Python 
interpreter and (b) how to install completion of Python identifiers.

    http://www.python.org/doc/current/lib/readline-example.html
    http://www.python.org/doc/current/lib/module-rlcompleter.html

3. My Python initialization file is below. Set the PYTHONSTARTUP 
environment variable so that it will be executed.  The following in 
my .bashrc-private file works for me:

    export PYTHONSTARTUP=$HOME/initialize.py


#========================================================

# initialize.py
# Dave's initialization file for Python interactive sessions.

import sys, os, readline

histfile = os.path.join(os.environ["HOME"], ".pyhist")
try:
    readline.read_history_file(histfile)
except IOError:
    pass
import atexit
atexit.register(readline.write_history_file, histfile)
del os, histfile


try:
    import readline
except ImportError:
    print "Module readline not available."
else:
    import rlcompleter
    readline.parse_and_bind("tab: complete")

#========================================================

  - Dave

-- 
Dave Kuhlman
dkuhlman at rexx.com
http://www.rexx.com/~dkuhlman