Edit File: rlcompleter.html
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <title>16.9. rlcompleter — Completion function for GNU readline — Python 2.7.5 documentation</title> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/default.css" type="text/css" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/pygments.css" type="text/css" /> <script type="text/javascript"> var DOCUMENTATION_OPTIONS = { URL_ROOT: '../', VERSION: '2.7.5', COLLAPSE_INDEX: false, FILE_SUFFIX: '.html', HAS_SOURCE: true }; </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/jquery.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/underscore.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/doctools.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/sidebar.js"></script> <link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" title="Search within Python 2.7.5 documentation" href="../_static/opensearch.xml"/> <link rel="author" title="About these documents" href="../about.html" /> <link rel="copyright" title="Copyright" href="../copyright.html" /> <link rel="top" title="Python 2.7.5 documentation" href="../index.html" /> <link rel="up" title="16. 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Optional Operating System Services</a> »</li> </ul> </div> <div class="document"> <div class="documentwrapper"> <div class="bodywrapper"> <div class="body"> <div class="section" id="module-rlcompleter"> <span id="rlcompleter-completion-function-for-gnu-readline"></span><h1>16.9. <a class="reference internal" href="#module-rlcompleter" title="rlcompleter: Python identifier completion, suitable for the GNU readline library."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">rlcompleter</span></tt></a> — Completion function for GNU readline<a class="headerlink" href="#module-rlcompleter" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1> <p><strong>Source code:</strong> <a class="reference external" href="http://hg.python.org/cpython/file/2.7/Lib/rlcompleter.py">Lib/rlcompleter.py</a></p> <hr class="docutils" /> <p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-rlcompleter" title="rlcompleter: Python identifier completion, suitable for the GNU readline library."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">rlcompleter</span></tt></a> module defines a completion function suitable for the <a class="reference internal" href="readline.html#module-readline" title="readline: GNU readline support for Python. (Unix)"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">readline</span></tt></a> module by completing valid Python identifiers and keywords.</p> <p>When this module is imported on a Unix platform with the <a class="reference internal" href="readline.html#module-readline" title="readline: GNU readline support for Python. (Unix)"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">readline</span></tt></a> module available, an instance of the <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Completer</span></tt> class is automatically created and its <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">complete()</span></tt> method is set as the <a class="reference internal" href="readline.html#module-readline" title="readline: GNU readline support for Python. (Unix)"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">readline</span></tt></a> completer.</p> <p>Example:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">rlcompleter</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">readline</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">readline</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">parse_and_bind</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">"tab: complete"</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">readline</span><span class="o">.</span> <span class="o"><</span><span class="n">TAB</span> <span class="n">PRESSED</span><span class="o">></span> <span class="go">readline.__doc__ readline.get_line_buffer( readline.read_init_file(</span> <span class="go">readline.__file__ readline.insert_text( readline.set_completer(</span> <span class="go">readline.__name__ readline.parse_and_bind(</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">readline</span><span class="o">.</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-rlcompleter" title="rlcompleter: Python identifier completion, suitable for the GNU readline library."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">rlcompleter</span></tt></a> module is designed for use with Python’s interactive mode. A user can add the following lines to his or her initialization file (identified by the <span class="target" id="index-0"></span><a class="reference internal" href="../using/cmdline.html#envvar-PYTHONSTARTUP"><tt class="xref std std-envvar docutils literal"><span class="pre">PYTHONSTARTUP</span></tt></a> environment variable) to get automatic <tt class="kbd docutils literal"><span class="pre">Tab</span></tt> completion:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="k">try</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">readline</span> <span class="k">except</span> <span class="ne">ImportError</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">"Module readline not available."</span> <span class="k">else</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">rlcompleter</span> <span class="n">readline</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">parse_and_bind</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">"tab: complete"</span><span class="p">)</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>On platforms without <a class="reference internal" href="readline.html#module-readline" title="readline: GNU readline support for Python. (Unix)"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">readline</span></tt></a>, the <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Completer</span></tt> class defined by this module can still be used for custom purposes.</p> <div class="section" id="completer-objects"> <span id="id1"></span><h2>16.9.1. Completer Objects<a class="headerlink" href="#completer-objects" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>Completer objects have the following method:</p> <dl class="method"> <dt id="rlcompleter.Completer.complete"> <tt class="descclassname">Completer.</tt><tt class="descname">complete</tt><big>(</big><em>text</em>, <em>state</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#rlcompleter.Completer.complete" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return the <em>state</em>th completion for <em>text</em>.</p> <p>If called for <em>text</em> that doesn’t include a period character (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'.'</span></tt>), it will complete from names currently defined in <a class="reference internal" href="__main__.html#module-__main__" title="__main__: The environment where the top-level script is run."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">__main__</span></tt></a>, <a class="reference internal" href="__builtin__.html#module-__builtin__" title="__builtin__: The module that provides the built-in namespace."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">__builtin__</span></tt></a> and keywords (as defined by the <a class="reference internal" href="keyword.html#module-keyword" title="keyword: Test whether a string is a keyword in Python."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">keyword</span></tt></a> module).</p> <p>If called for a dotted name, it will try to evaluate anything without obvious side-effects (functions will not be evaluated, but it can generate calls to <a class="reference internal" href="../reference/datamodel.html#object.__getattr__" title="object.__getattr__"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">__getattr__()</span></tt></a>) up to the last part, and find matches for the rest via the <a class="reference internal" href="functions.html#dir" title="dir"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">dir()</span></tt></a> function. Any exception raised during the evaluation of the expression is caught, silenced and <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#None" title="None"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt></a> is returned.</p> </dd></dl> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="sphinxsidebar"> <div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper"> <h3><a href="../contents.html">Table Of Contents</a></h3> <ul> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#">16.9. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">rlcompleter</span></tt> — Completion function for GNU readline</a><ul> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#completer-objects">16.9.1. Completer Objects</a></li> </ul> </li> </ul> <h4>Previous topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="readline.html" title="previous chapter">16.8. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">readline</span></tt> — GNU readline interface</a></p> <h4>Next topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="ipc.html" title="next chapter">17. Interprocess Communication and Networking</a></p> <h3>This Page</h3> <ul class="this-page-menu"> <li><a href="../bugs.html">Report a Bug</a></li> <li><a href="../_sources/library/rlcompleter.txt" rel="nofollow">Show Source</a></li> </ul> <div id="searchbox" style="display: none"> <h3>Quick search</h3> <form class="search" action="../search.html" method="get"> <input type="text" name="q" /> <input type="submit" value="Go" /> <input type="hidden" name="check_keywords" value="yes" /> <input type="hidden" name="area" value="default" /> </form> <p class="searchtip" style="font-size: 90%"> Enter search terms or a module, class or function name. </p> </div> <script type="text/javascript">$('#searchbox').show(0);</script> </div> </div> <div class="clearer"></div> </div> <div class="related"> <h3>Navigation</h3> <ul> <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px"> <a href="../genindex.html" title="General Index" >index</a></li> <li class="right" > <a href="../py-modindex.html" title="Python Module Index" >modules</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="ipc.html" title="17. 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