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cmd2 - a tool for building interactive command line applications in Python

Project description

cmd2 is a tool for building interactive command line applications in Python. Its goal is to make it quick and easy for developers to build feature-rich and user-friendly interactive command line applications. It provides a simple API which is an extension of Python’s built-in cmd module. cmd2 provides a wealth of features on top of cmd to make your life easier and eliminates much of the boilerplate code which would be necessary when using cmd.

The latest documentation for cmd2 can be read online here: https://cmd2.readthedocs.io/

Main features:

  • Searchable command history (history command and <Ctrl>+r) - optionally persistent

  • Text file scripting of your application with load (@) and _relative_load (@@)

  • Python scripting of your application with pyscript

  • Run shell commands with !

  • Pipe command output to shell commands with |

  • Redirect command output to file with >, >>

  • Bare >, >> with no filename send output to paste buffer (clipboard)

  • py enters interactive Python console (opt-in ipy for IPython console)

  • Option to display long output using a pager with cmd2.Cmd.ppaged()

  • Multi-line commands

  • Special-character command shortcuts (beyond cmd’s ? and !)

  • Command aliasing similar to bash alias command

  • Macros, which are similar to aliases, but can take arguments when called

  • Ability to load commands at startup from an initialization script

  • Settable environment parameters

  • Parsing commands with arguments using argparse, including support for sub-commands

  • Unicode character support

  • Good tab-completion of commands, sub-commands, file system paths, and shell commands

  • Automatic tab-completion of argparse flags when using one of the cmd2 argparse decorators

  • Support for Python 3.4+ on Windows, macOS, and Linux

  • Trivial to provide built-in help for all commands

  • Built-in regression testing framework for your applications (transcript-based testing)

  • Transcripts for use with built-in regression can be automatically generated from history -t

  • Alerts that seamlessly print while user enters text at prompt

Usable without modification anywhere cmd is used; simply import cmd2.Cmd in place of cmd.Cmd.

Version 0.9.0+ of cmd2 supports Python 3.4+ only. If you wish to use cmd2 with Python 2.7, then please install version 0.8.x.

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0.9.7

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