Persistent Python Command-Line History

Question

I\'d like to be able to \"up-arrow\" to commands that I input in a previous Python interpreter. I have found the readline module which offers functions like:

Answer 1

Use PIP to install the pyreadline package:

pip install pyreadline

Answer 2

Persistent history has been supported out of the box since Python 3.4. See this bug report.

Answer 3

Try using IPython as a python shell. It already has everything you ask for. They have packages for most popular distros, so install should be very easy.

Answer 4

If all you want is to use interactive history substitution without all the file stuff, all you need to do is import readline:

import readline

And then you can use the up/down keys to navigate past commands. Same for 2 or 3.

This wasn't clear to me from the docs, but maybe I missed it.

Answer 5

I think the suggestions in the Python documentation pretty much cover what you want. Look at the example pystartup file toward the end of section 13.3:

• http://docs.python.org/tutorial/interactive.html

or see this page:

• http://rc98.net/pystartup

But, for an out of the box interactive shell that provides all this and more, take a look at using IPython:

• http://ipython.scipy.org/moin/