The standard Python readline extension statically linked against the GNU readline library.
It has been renamed to GNUREADLINE to resolve a name clash with the
standard library module. Please go to the new gnureadline_ PyPI page.
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 but only up to 3.3, and has been tested with Python versions 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 3.1, 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 in the past). 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_.
.. _gnureadline: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/gnureadline .. _GNU readline: http://www.gnu.org/software/readline/ .. _editline: http://www.thrysoee.dk/editline/ .. _pyreadline: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/pyreadline .. _GitHub repository: http://github.com/ludwigschwardt/python-gnureadline
FAQs
The standard Python readline extension statically linked against the GNU readline library.
We found that readline demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 2 open source maintainers collaborating on the project.
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