gnureadline

The standard Python readline extension statically linked against the GNU readline library.

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Project description

Stand-alone GNU 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 is called gnureadline so as not to clash with the readline module in the standard library. This keeps polite installers such as pip happy and is sufficient for shells such as IPython. In order to use this module in the standard Python shell it has to be installed with the more impolite easy_install from setuptools. It is recommended that you use the latest pip >= 1.4 together with setuptools >= 0.8 to install gnureadline. This will download a binary wheel from PyPI if available, thereby bypassing the need for compilation and its slew of potential problems.

The module can be used with both Python 2.x and 3.x, and has been tested with Python versions 2.6, 2.7, 3.2 and 3.3. The first three numbers of the module version reflect the version of the underlying GNU readline library (major, minor and patch level), while any additional fourth 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

6.3.3 (2014-04-08)

Major rework of OS X build process (detect arches, no custom flags)
#20, #22, #28: Various issues addressed by new streamlined build
#28: Use $CC or cc to compile libreadline instead of default gcc
#35: Workaround for clang from Xcode 5.1 and Mac OS X 10.9.2
Uses Python 3.4 readline.c from hg 3.4 branch (89086:3110fb3095a2)
Updated to build against readline 6.3 (patch-level 3)

6.2.5 (2014-02-19)

Renamed module to gnureadline to improve installation with pip
#23, #25-27, #29-33: Tweaks and package reworked to gnureadline
Uses Python 2.x readline.c from hg 2.7 branch (89084:6b10943a5916)
Uses Python 3.x readline.c from hg 3.3 branch (89085:6adac0d9b933)
Updated to build against readline 6.2 (patch-level 5)

6.2.4.1 (2012-10-22)

#21: Fixed building on Python.org 3.3 / Mac OS 10.8

6.2.4 (2012-10-17)

#15: Improved detection of compilers before Xcode 4.3
Uses Python 3.x readline.c from v3.3.0 tag (changeset 73997)
Updated to build against readline 6.2 (patch-level 4)

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

Project details

These details have not been verified by PyPI

Project links

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8.2.13

Oct 18, 2024

8.2.10

Jun 10, 2024

8.1.2

Jun 14, 2022

8.0.0

Jul 10, 2019

6.3.8

Oct 20, 2017

This version

6.3.3

Apr 8, 2014

6.2.5

Feb 16, 2014

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