Is there a python (3) native equivalent to invoking the script with rlwrap?

Question

I'm using input() to ask a user for a command in a Python (3) CLI script.

I'd like them to be able to press ↑ to reuse older commands. For that matter I'd like them to be able to do other basic line editing too.

I can get these features by running rlwrap myscript.py but I'd rather not have to run the wrapper script. (yes I could set up an alias but I'd like to encapsulate it in-script if poss)

Is there a library to enable this (e.g. provide a history/editing aware version of input()) or would I need to start from scratch?

Nozicka

You can use the readline module from the standard library. – Vena

python-prompt-toolkit - it uses readline and more. – Somatic

standard cmd also uses readline but it may need more changes - every commanad has to be in separated function do_commandname(). Similar cmd2 with more functions. – Somatic

Answer 1

I'm grateful to the answers posted as comments. I tried @furas' suggestion, and it seems to be working fine. Here's a snippet to help others who come here from a search.

from prompt_toolkit import prompt       
from prompt_toolkit import PromptSession
from prompt_toolkit.history import FileHistory
from os.path import expanduser

myPromptSession = PromptSession(history = FileHistory(expanduser('~/.myhistory')))

while True:
  userInput = myPromptSession.prompt('Enter command')
  print("{}, interesting.".format(userInput))

prompt is the main do-ing function, but you don't get any history unless you use a PromptSession. If you don't use the history option, then history is maintained in memory and lost at program exit.

https://python-prompt-toolkit.readthedocs.io/en/master/index.html

Nozicka

A bit off topic but the ptpython REPL is worth looking at. Written by the same guy and (I think) the project that spawned this one, it's a much better alternative to the standard python shell. Better than IPython imo. – Erena