python shell that saves history of typed in commands that will persist between reboots

[David Robinow]

On Wed, Nov 16, 2011 at 4:09 PM, Ben Finney <ben+python at benfinney.id.au> wrote:
> goldtech <goldtech at worldpost.com> writes:
>
>> Using Windows. Is there a python shell that has a history of typed in
>> commands?
>
> I don't know about MS Windows, but the Python interactive shell can be
> linked with the GNU Readline library for managing its command line
> <URL:http://docs.python.org/library/readline.html> including editing
> features, tab completion, history management, and a persistent history
> file.
>
> You can then use that functionality in your Python interactive startup
> file. Here's mine:
>
> =====
> # $HOME/.pythonrc
> # User configuration for interactive Python shell.
>
> import sys
> import os
> import os.path
> import atexit
>
> # Tab completion with readline.
> # Cribbed from <URL:http://docs.python.org/lib/module-rlcompleter.html>.
> try:
>    import readline
> except ImportError:
>    sys.stderr.write("Module readline not available.\n")
> else:
>    import rlcompleter
>
>    # Enable tab completion.
>    readline.parse_and_bind("tab: complete")
>
>    # Persistent command history.
>    histfile = os.path.join(os.environ["HOME"], ".python_history")
>    try:
>        readline.read_history_file(histfile)
>    except IOError:
>        # Existing history file can't be read.
>        pass
>    atexit.register(readline.write_history_file, histfile)
>
>    del histfile
>
> del sys, os, atexit
>
> =====
>
> Reading the documentation, I see that the ‘readline’ library is only
> linked with Python on Unix-alike operating systems. Yet another reason
> why MS Windows is not a good choice for developing software I guess.

 I'm not sure what documentation you're reading, but your code works fine on
 Windows.   Thanks.  [It is necessary to properly set PYTHONSTARTUP]