Skip to main content

Stand-alone readline module

Some platforms, such as Mac OS X, do not ship with GNU readline installed. The readline extension module in the standard library of Mac “system” Python uses NetBSD’s editline (libedit) library instead, which is a readline replacement with a less restrictive software license.

As the alternatives to GNU readline do not have fully equivalent functionality, it is useful to add proper readline support to these platforms. This module achieves this by bundling the standard Python readline module with the GNU readline source code, which is compiled and statically linked to it. The end result is a package which is simple to install and requires no extra shared libraries.

The module can be used with both Python 2.x and 3.x, and has been tested with Python versions 2.5, 2.6, 2.7 and 3.1. The major and minor numbers of the module version reflect the version of the underlying GNU readline library, while the third (patch) number distinguishes different module updates based on the same readline library.

This module is usually unnecessary on Linux and other Unix systems with default readline support. An exception is if you have a Python distribution that does not include GNU readline due to licensing restrictions (such as ActiveState’s ActivePython). If you are using Windows, which also ships without GNU readline, you might want to consider using the pyreadline module instead, which is a readline replacement written in pure Python that interacts with the Windows clipboard.

The latest development version is available from the GitHub repository.

History

6.2.2 (2012-02-24)

  • #14: Fixed compilation with Xcode 4.3 on Mac OS 10.7

  • Updated to build against readline 6.2 (patch-level 2)

6.2.1 (2011-08-31)

  • #10: Fixed ‘_emacs_meta_keymap’ missing symbol on Mac OS 10.7

  • #7: Fixed SDK version check to work with Mac OS 10.7 and later

  • Uses Python 2.x readline.c from release27-maint branch (r87358)

  • Uses Python 3.x readline.c from release32-maint branch (r88446)

6.2.0 (2011-06-02)

  • #5: Removed ‘-arch ppc’ on Mac OS 10.6, as Snow Leopard supports Intel only

  • Updated to build against readline 6.2 (patch-level 1)

6.1.0 (2010-09-20)

  • Changed version number to reflect readline version instead of Python version

  • #4: Updated to build against readline 6.1 (patch-level 2)

  • #2: Python 3 support

  • Uses Python 2.x readline.c from release27-maint branch (r83672)

  • Uses Python 3.x readline.c from r32a2 tag (r84541)

  • Source code moved to GitHub

  • Additional maintainer: Sridhar Ratnakumar

2.6.4 (2009-11-26)

  • Added -fPIC to compiler flags to fix linking error on 64-bit Ubuntu

  • Enabled all readline functionality specified in pyconfig.h macros

  • Uses readline.c from Python svn trunk (r75725), which followed 2.6.4 release

  • Patched readline.c to replace Py_XDECREF calls with the safer Py_CLEAR

  • Fixed compilation error on Mac OS 10.4 with XCode older than version 2.4

2.6.1 (2009-11-18)

  • Updated package to work with Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard), which ships with Python 2.6.1

  • Uses readline.c from Python 2.6.1 release

  • Backported “spurious trailing space” bugfix from Python svn trunk (see e.g. https://bugs.launchpad.net/python/+bug/470824 for details on bug)

  • Updated to build against readline 6.0 (patch-level 4)

  • Now builds successfully on Linux (removed Mac-specific flags in this case), and still supports Mac OS 10.4 and 10.5

2.5.1 (2008-05-28)

  • Updated package to work with Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard), which ships with Python 2.5.1

  • Uses readline.c from Python 2.5.1 release

  • Updated to build against readline 5.2 (patch-level 12)

  • New maintainer: Ludwig Schwardt

2.4.2 (2005-12-26)

  • Original package by Bob Ippolito, supporting Python 2.3 / 2.4 on Mac OS 10.3 (Panther) and 10.4 (Tiger)

  • Builds against readline 5.1

Download files

Download the file for your platform. If you're not sure which to choose, learn more about installing packages.

Source Distribution

readline-6.2.2.tar.gz (2.3 MB view details)

Uploaded Source

Built Distributions

If you're not sure about the file name format, learn more about wheel file names.

readline-6.2.2-py2.7-macosx-10.7-intel.egg (233.8 kB view details)

Uploaded Egg

readline-6.2.2-py2.6-macosx-10.6-universal.egg (216.0 kB view details)

Uploaded Egg

readline-6.2.2-py2.5-macosx-10.5-i386.egg (395.5 kB view details)

Uploaded Egg

File details

Details for the file readline-6.2.2.tar.gz.

File metadata

  • Download URL: readline-6.2.2.tar.gz
  • Upload date:
  • Size: 2.3 MB
  • Tags: Source
  • Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? No

File hashes

Hashes for readline-6.2.2.tar.gz
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 b9d30e8928530791944ab40c76aebcd4c8a7d6bc8cda05f3b521446fa3782b6d
MD5 ad9d4a5a3af37d31daf36ea917b08c77
BLAKE2b-256 591b81d5b49abe3dc9a232e1b79015085b042f506be16f693133ff778384ed65

See more details on using hashes here.

File details

Details for the file readline-6.2.2-py2.7-macosx-10.7-intel.egg.

File metadata

File hashes

Hashes for readline-6.2.2-py2.7-macosx-10.7-intel.egg
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 859735f6e43a8434a4be5dd725a81518f141d987381b1bb6716c646aca6a16ea
MD5 25383d860632d4a1521961ba68a52fe2
BLAKE2b-256 35a50f9a548b181089af601c0eb6798a48c4b49795cec3d288390c0b0fc5fe9e

See more details on using hashes here.

File details

Details for the file readline-6.2.2-py2.6-macosx-10.6-universal.egg.

File metadata

File hashes

Hashes for readline-6.2.2-py2.6-macosx-10.6-universal.egg
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 c7136d08f728f6e8340479787170788198dd0e305f9af37291b34ceea1046205
MD5 13d63c76be4ff09c5d55fbbe3b6ab2c7
BLAKE2b-256 cc8571486f138cd8f400b20b11b3e1669700c12a2ecdb8fd2ba7138edf440e5b

See more details on using hashes here.

File details

Details for the file readline-6.2.2-py2.5-macosx-10.5-i386.egg.

File metadata

File hashes

Hashes for readline-6.2.2-py2.5-macosx-10.5-i386.egg
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 e7e9a82de515a5b182fba737776d354df037a5f743896fd18aa5a7f4dae5043e
MD5 418b20def1e03fc9c1c40300ea198654
BLAKE2b-256 d3947d3306b917b62f935452844d7c350cf97d77b8e161601277505ddd19a8cf

See more details on using hashes here.

Supported by

AWS Cloud computing and Security Sponsor Datadog Monitoring Depot Continuous Integration Fastly CDN Google Download Analytics Sentry Error logging StatusPage Status page