How to repeat last command in python interpreter shell?

Question

How do I repeat the last command? The usual keys: Up, Ctrl+Up, Alt-p don\'t work. They produce nonsensical characters.

(ve)[kakarukeys@localhost ve]$ python
         


        

Answer 1

I use the following to enable history on python shell.

This is my .pythonstartup file . PYTHONSTARTUP environment variable is set to this file path.

# python startup file 
import readline 
import rlcompleter 
import atexit 
import os 
# tab completion 
readline.parse_and_bind('tab: complete') 
# history file 
histfile = os.path.join(os.environ['HOME'], '.pythonhistory') 
try: 
    readline.read_history_file(histfile) 
except IOError: 
    pass 
atexit.register(readline.write_history_file, histfile) 
del os, histfile, readline, rlcompleter

You will need to have the modules readline, rlcompleter to enable this.

Check out the info on this at : http://docs.python.org/using/cmdline.html#envvar-PYTHONSTARTUP.

Modules required:

1. http://docs.python.org/library/readline.html
2. http://docs.python.org/library/rlcompleter.html

Answer 2

On Ubuntu Server 12.04, I had this problem after installing a version of Python from source (Python3.4).

Some of the comments here recommend installing Ipython and I want to mention that I have the same behavior even with Ipython. From what I can tell, this is a readline problem.

For Ubuntu 12.04 server, I had to install libncurses-dev and libreadline-dev and then install Python from source for up-history (readline) behavior to be enabled. I pretty much did this:

sudo apt-get install libncurses-dev libreadline-dev

After that, I deleted the previously installed Python (NOT THE SYSTEM PYTHON, the one I had installed from source!) and reinstalled it from source and everything worked as expected.

I did not have to install anything with pip or edit .pythonstartup.

Answer 3

On Ubuntu 16.04, I had the same problem after upgrading Python from the preloaded 3.5 to version 3.7 from source code. As @erewok suggested, I did

sudo apt-get install libncurses-dev libreadline-dev

followed by: sudo make install After that, the arrow-up key worked. Not sure which module is required to fix the problem or both, but without "make install", none would work. During initial make, there were some red-flag errors, but ignored and completed the build. This time, there didn't seem to have any errors.

Answer 4

In IDLE, go to Options -> Configure IDLE -> Keys and there select history-next and then history-previous to change the keys.

Then click on Get New Keys for Selection and you are ready to choose whatever key combination you want.

Answer 5

You don't need a custom script like pyfunc's answer for OSX (at least on mavericks). In Idle click on Idle -> Preferences -> Keys, locate "history-next" and "history-previous", and either leave them with their default keyboard shortcut or assign "up arrow" and "down arrow" per typical expected terminal behavior.

This is on Idle 2.7 on OSX Mavericks.

Answer 6

On Mac with Python 2.x

➜ ~ brew install rlwrap

Start with rlwrap

➜ ~ rlwrap python