7.17 readline -- GNU readline interface

Availability: Unix.

The readline module defines a number of functions used either directly or from the rlcompleter module to facilitate completion and history file read and write from the Python interpreter.

The readline module defines the following functions:

parse_and_bind (string)
Parse and execute single line of a readline init file.

get_line_buffer ()
Return the current contents of the line buffer.

insert_text (string)
Insert text into the command line.

read_init_file ([filename])
Parse a readline initialization file. The default filename is the last filename used.

read_history_file ([filename])
Load a readline history file. The default filename is ~/.history.

write_history_file ([filename])
Save a readline history file. The default filename is ~/.history.

get_history_length ()
Return the desired length of the history file. Negative values imply unlimited history file size.

set_history_length (length)
Set the number of lines to save in the history file. write_history_file() uses this value to truncate the history file when saving. Negative values imply unlimited history file size.

set_completer ([function])
Set or remove the completer function. The completer function is called as function(text, state), for i in [0, 1, 2, ...] until it returns a non-string. It should return the next possible completion starting with text.

get_begidx ()
Get the beginning index of the readline tab-completion scope.

get_endidx ()
Get the ending index of the readline tab-completion scope.

set_completer_delims (string)
Set the readline word delimiters for tab-completion.

get_completer_delims ()
Get the readline word delimiters for tab-completion.

See Also:

Module rlcompleter:
Completion of Python identifiers at the interactive prompt.


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