python tab completion Mac OSX 10.7 (Lion)

Question

Before upgrading to lion, I had tab complete working in a python shell via terminal. Following these instructions, it was possible to have tab complete working.

Sinc

Answer 1

As it uses libedit/editline, the syntax to enable autocompletion is a little bit different. You can first force emacs bindings (as it is with readline if I'm not wrong) by typing :

readline.parse_and_bind("bind -e")

Then you can add autocompletion linked to your TAB button (man editrc) :

readline.parse_and_bind("bind '\t' rl_complete")

And if you want to support indenting and has a history (found on internet), it should look like that (unless I made a mistake) :

import readline,rlcompleter

### Indenting
class TabCompleter(rlcompleter.Completer):
    """Completer that supports indenting"""
    def complete(self, text, state):
        if not text:
            return ('    ', None)[state]
        else:
            return rlcompleter.Completer.complete(self, text, state)

readline.set_completer(TabCompleter().complete)

### Add autocompletion
if 'libedit' in readline.__doc__:
    readline.parse_and_bind("bind -e")
    readline.parse_and_bind("bind '\t' rl_complete")
else:
    readline.parse_and_bind("tab: complete")

### Add history
import os
histfile = os.path.join(os.environ["HOME"], ".pyhist")
try:
    readline.read_history_file(histfile)
except IOError:
    pass
import atexit
atexit.register(readline.write_history_file, histfile)
del histfile