pygnurl 0.3.0

ctypes-based Python wrapper for GNU Readline

pygnurl is a ctypes-based Python wrapper for GNU Readline intended to be used as a drop-in replacement for Python’s built-in readline module. It is currently intended for Windows Python which does not ship with a readline module by default.

pygnurl works with 32- and 64-bit Python 2 and 3.

Requirements

pygnurl dynamically binds to a Readline DLL, so you need a DLL matching the architecture of your Python interpreter (not necessarily your system). If you are using 32-bit Python, you can get a pre-built Windows-compatible Readline DLL from:

http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/readline.htm

Quick Start Guide

pip install pygnurl
set PYGNURL_DLL=X:\path\to\readline.dll
setx PYGNURL_DLL %PYGNURL_DLL%
python
>>> import rlcompleter
>>> import readline
>>> readline.parse_and_bind('tab: complete')
>>> r<tab><tab>

If your Readline DLL is on your path, you can specify PYGNURL_DLL by name only. Note that if you specify PYGNURL_DLL with a path, pygnurl won’t be able to load it if it depends on other DLLs not on your path.

Motivation

pygnurl aims to provide full GNU Readline support across all platforms with no compilation overhead. Any pre-built Readline library should be able to be dropped in with no code modifications. If necessary, version- or platform-specific compatibility fixes can be implemented in Python, not C.

Development

For source code, questions and bug reports, visit the GitHub repository:

https://github.com/evanunderscore/pygnurl

Alternatives

pyreadline - A python implmentation of GNU readline. (Windows)

gnureadline - The standard Python readline extension statically linked against the GNU readline library. (Mac OS X, Posix)

rl - Alternative Python bindings for GNU Readline. (Linux, Mac OS X)