Standard python interpreter has a vi command mode?

Question

I was working a bit in the python interpreter (python 2.4 on RHEL 5.3), and suddenly found myself in what seems to be a \'vi command mode\'. That is, I can edit previous com

Answer 1

This kind of all depends on a few things.

First of all, the python shell uses readline, and as such, your ~/.inputrc is important here. That's the same with psql the PostgreSQL command-line interpreter and mysql the MySQL shell. All of those can be configured to use vi-style command bindings, with history etc.

will put you into vi mode at the python shell once you've got your editing mode set to vi

You may need the following definition in your ~/.inputrc

set editing-mode vi

OSX info

OSX uses libedit which uses ~/.editrc. You can man editrc for more information.

For example, to mimick a popular key combination which searches in your history, you can add the following to your .editrc

bind "^R" em-inc-search-prev