Is there a way to programmatically force a Python script to drop into a REPL at an arbitrary point in its execution, even if the script was launched from the command line?
I'm writing a quick and dirty plotting program, which I want to read data from stdin or a file, plot it, and then drop into the REPL to allow for the plot to be customized.
I frequently use this:
def interact():
import code
code.InteractiveConsole(locals=globals()).interact()
You could try using the interactive option for python:
python -i program.py
This will execute the code in program.py, then go to the REPL. Anything you define or import in the top level of program.py will be available.
Here's how you should do it (IPython > v0.11):
import IPython
IPython.embed()
For IPython <= v0.11:
from IPython.Shell import IPShellEmbed
ipshell = IPShellEmbed()
ipshell() # this call anywhere in your program will start IPython
You should use IPython, the Cadillac of Python REPLs. See http://ipython.org/ipython-doc/stable/interactive/reference.html#embedding-ipython
From the documentation:
It can also be useful in scientific
computing situations where it is
common to need to do some automatic,
computationally intensive part and
then stop to look at data, plots, etc.
Opening an IPython instance will give
you full access to your data and
functions, and you can resume program
execution once you are done with the
interactive part (perhaps to stop
again later, as many times as needed).
You can launch the debugger:
import pdb;pdb.set_trace()
Not sure what you want the REPL for, but the debugger is very similar.
To get use of iPython and functionality of debugger you should use ipdb,
You can use it in the same way as pdb, with the addition of :
import ipdb
ipdb.set_trace()
I just did this in one of my own scripts (it runs inside an automation framework that is a huge PITA to instrument):
x = 0 # exit loop counter
while x == 0:
user_input = raw_input("Please enter a command, or press q to quit: ")
if user_input[0] == "q":
x = 1
else:
try:
print eval(user_input)
except:
print "I can't do that, Dave."
continue
Just place this wherever you want a breakpoint, and you can check the state using the same syntax as the python interpreter (although it doesn't seem to let you do module imports).
It's not very elegant, but it doesn't require any other setup.
Great answers above, but if you would like this functionality in your IDE. Using Visual Studio Code (v1.5.*) with Python Setup:
Highlight the lines you would like to run and
right click and select Run Selection/Line in Interactive Window from the drop down.
Press shift + enter on your keyboard.
Right click on the Python file you want to execute in the file explorer and select Run Current File in Interactive Window
This will launch an interactive session, with linting, code completion and syntax highlighting:
Enter the code you would like to evaluate, and hit shift + enter on your keyboard to execute.
Enjoy Python!
I have a .pythonrc in my path, which gets loaded when I run python:
python
Loading pythonrc
>>>
The problem is that my .pythonrc is not loaded when I execute files:
python -i script.py
>>>
It would be very handy to have tab completion (and a few other things) when I load things interactively.
From the Python documentation for -i:
When a script is passed as first argument or the -c option is used, enter interactive mode after executing the script or the command, even when sys.stdin does not appear to be a terminal. The PYTHONSTARTUP file is not read.
I believe this is done so that scripts run predictably for all users, and do not depend on anything in a user's particular PYTHONSTARTUP file.
As Greg has noted, there is a very good reason why -i behaves the way it does. However, I do find it pretty useful to be able to have my PYTHONSTARTUP loaded when I want an interactive session. So, here's the code I use when I want to be able to have PYTHONSTARTUP active in a script run with -i.
if __name__ == '__main__':
#do normal stuff
#and at the end of the file:
import sys
if sys.flags.interactive==1:
import os
myPythonPath = os.environ['PYTHONSTARTUP'].split(os.sep)
sys.path.append(os.sep.join(myPythonPath[:-1]))
pythonrcName = ''.join(myPythonPath[-1].split('.')[:-1]) #the filename minus the trailing extension, if the extension exists
pythonrc = __import__(pythonrcName)
for attr in dir(pythonrc):
__builtins__.__dict__[attr] = getattr(pythonrc, attr)
sys.path.remove(os.sep.join(myPythonPath[:-1]))
del sys, os, pythonrc
Note that this is fairly hacky and I never do this without ensuring that my pythonrc isn't accidentally clobbering variables and builtins.
Apparently the user module provides this, but has been removed in Python 3.0. It is a bit of a security hole, depending what's in your pythonrc...
In addition to Chinmay Kanchi and Greg Hewgill's answers, I'd like to add that IPython and BPython work fine in this case. Perhaps it's time for you to switch? :)
I'm trying to save myself just a few keystrokes for a command I type fairly regularly in Python.
In my python startup script, I define a function called load which is similar to import, but adds some functionality. It takes a single string:
def load(s):
# Do some stuff
return something
In order to call this function I have to type
>>> load('something')
I would rather be able to simply type:
>>> load something
I am running Python with readline support, so I know there exists some programmability there, but I don't know if this sort of thing is possible using it.
I attempted to get around this by using the InteractivConsole and creating an instance of it in my startup file, like so:
import code, re, traceback
class LoadingInteractiveConsole(code.InteractiveConsole):
def raw_input(self, prompt = ""):
s = raw_input(prompt)
match = re.match('^load\s+(.+)', s)
if match:
module = match.group(1)
try:
load(module)
print "Loaded " + module
except ImportError:
traceback.print_exc()
return ''
else:
return s
console = LoadingInteractiveConsole()
console.interact("")
This works with the caveat that I have to hit Ctrl-D twice to exit the python interpreter: once to get out of my custom console, once to get out of the real one.
Is there a way to do this without writing a custom C program and embedding the interpreter into it?
Edit
Out of channel, I had the suggestion of appending this to the end of my startup file:
import sys
sys.exit()
It works well enough, but I'm still interested in alternative solutions.
You could try ipython - which gives a python shell which does allow many things including automatic parentheses which gives you the function call as you requested.
I think you want the cmd module.
See a tutorial here:
http://wiki.python.org/moin/CmdModule
Hate to answer my own question, but there hasn't been an answer that works for all the versions of Python I use. Aside from the solution I posted in my question edit (which is what I'm now using), here's another:
Edit .bashrc to contain the following lines:
alias python3='python3 ~/py/shellreplace.py'
alias python='python ~/py/shellreplace.py'
alias python27='python27 ~/py/shellreplace.py'
Then simply move all of the LoadingInteractiveConsole code into the file ~/py/shellreplace.py Once the script finishes executing, python will cease executing, and the improved interactive session will be seamless.
Is there a way to programmatically force a Python script to drop into a REPL at an arbitrary point in its execution, even if the script was launched from the command line?
I'm writing a quick and dirty plotting program, which I want to read data from stdin or a file, plot it, and then drop into the REPL to allow for the plot to be customized.
I frequently use this:
def interact():
import code
code.InteractiveConsole(locals=globals()).interact()
You could try using the interactive option for python:
python -i program.py
This will execute the code in program.py, then go to the REPL. Anything you define or import in the top level of program.py will be available.
Here's how you should do it (IPython > v0.11):
import IPython
IPython.embed()
For IPython <= v0.11:
from IPython.Shell import IPShellEmbed
ipshell = IPShellEmbed()
ipshell() # this call anywhere in your program will start IPython
You should use IPython, the Cadillac of Python REPLs. See http://ipython.org/ipython-doc/stable/interactive/reference.html#embedding-ipython
From the documentation:
It can also be useful in scientific
computing situations where it is
common to need to do some automatic,
computationally intensive part and
then stop to look at data, plots, etc.
Opening an IPython instance will give
you full access to your data and
functions, and you can resume program
execution once you are done with the
interactive part (perhaps to stop
again later, as many times as needed).
You can launch the debugger:
import pdb;pdb.set_trace()
Not sure what you want the REPL for, but the debugger is very similar.
To get use of iPython and functionality of debugger you should use ipdb,
You can use it in the same way as pdb, with the addition of :
import ipdb
ipdb.set_trace()
I just did this in one of my own scripts (it runs inside an automation framework that is a huge PITA to instrument):
x = 0 # exit loop counter
while x == 0:
user_input = raw_input("Please enter a command, or press q to quit: ")
if user_input[0] == "q":
x = 1
else:
try:
print eval(user_input)
except:
print "I can't do that, Dave."
continue
Just place this wherever you want a breakpoint, and you can check the state using the same syntax as the python interpreter (although it doesn't seem to let you do module imports).
It's not very elegant, but it doesn't require any other setup.
Great answers above, but if you would like this functionality in your IDE. Using Visual Studio Code (v1.5.*) with Python Setup:
Highlight the lines you would like to run and
right click and select Run Selection/Line in Interactive Window from the drop down.
Press shift + enter on your keyboard.
Right click on the Python file you want to execute in the file explorer and select Run Current File in Interactive Window
This will launch an interactive session, with linting, code completion and syntax highlighting:
Enter the code you would like to evaluate, and hit shift + enter on your keyboard to execute.
Enjoy Python!
I find myself frequently using Python's interpreter to work with databases, files, etc -- basically a lot of manual formatting of semi-structured data. I don't properly save and clean up the useful bits as often as I would like. Is there a way to save my input into the shell (db connections, variable assignments, little for loops and bits of logic) -- some history of the interactive session? If I use something like script I get too much stdout noise. I don't really need to pickle all the objects -- though if there is a solution that does that, it would be OK. Ideally I would just be left with a script that ran as the one I created interactively, and I could just delete the bits I didn't need. Is there a package that does this, or a DIY approach?
IPython is extremely useful if you like using interactive sessions. For example for your use-case there is the %save magic command, you just input %save my_useful_session 10-20 23 to save input lines 10 to 20 and 23 to my_useful_session.py (to help with this, every line is prefixed by its number).
Furthermore, the documentation states:
This function uses the same syntax as %history for input ranges, then saves the lines to the filename you specify.
This allows for example, to reference older sessions, such as
%save current_session ~0/
%save previous_session ~1/
Look at the videos on the presentation page to get a quick overview of the features.
From Andrew Jones's website (archived):
import readline
readline.write_history_file('/home/ahj/history')
There is a way to do it. Store the file in ~/.pystartup...
# Add auto-completion and a stored history file of commands to your Python
# interactive interpreter. Requires Python 2.0+, readline. Autocomplete is
# bound to the Esc key by default (you can change it - see readline docs).
#
# Store the file in ~/.pystartup, and set an environment variable to point
# to it: "export PYTHONSTARTUP=/home/user/.pystartup" in bash.
#
# Note that PYTHONSTARTUP does *not* expand "~", so you have to put in the
# full path to your home directory.
import atexit
import os
import readline
import rlcompleter
historyPath = os.path.expanduser("~/.pyhistory")
def save_history(historyPath=historyPath):
import readline
readline.write_history_file(historyPath)
if os.path.exists(historyPath):
readline.read_history_file(historyPath)
atexit.register(save_history)
del os, atexit, readline, rlcompleter, save_history, historyPath
and then set the environment variable PYTHONSTARTUP in your shell (e.g. in ~/.bashrc):
export PYTHONSTARTUP=$HOME/.pystartup
You can also add this to get autocomplete for free:
readline.parse_and_bind('tab: complete')
Please note that this will only work on *nix systems. As readline is only available in Unix platform.
If you are using IPython you can save to a file all your previous commands using the magic function %history with the -f parameter, p.e:
%history -f /tmp/history.py
After installing Ipython, and opening an Ipython session by running the command:
ipython
from your command line, just run the following Ipython 'magic' command to automatically log your entire Ipython session:
%logstart
This will create a uniquely named .py file and store your session for later use as an interactive Ipython session or for use in the script(s) of your choosing.
Also, reinteract gives you a notebook-like interface to a Python session.
In addition to IPython, a similar utility bpython has a "save the code you've entered to a file" feature
I had to struggle to find an answer, I was very new to iPython environment.
This will work
If your iPython session looks like this
In [1] : import numpy as np
....
In [135]: counter=collections.Counter(mapusercluster[3])
In [136]: counter
Out[136]: Counter({2: 700, 0: 351, 1: 233})
You want to save lines from 1 till 135 then on the same ipython session use this command
In [137]: %save test.py 1-135
This will save all your python statements in test.py file in your current directory ( where you initiated the ipython).
There is %history magic for printing and saving the input history (and optionally the output).
To store your current session to a file named my_history.py:
>>> %hist -f my_history.py
History IPython stores both the commands you enter, and the results it produces. You can easily go through previous commands with the up- and down-arrow keys, or access your history in more sophisticated ways.
You can use the %history magic function to examine past input and output. Input history from previous sessions is saved in a database, and IPython can be configured to save output history.
Several other magic functions can use your input history, including %edit, %rerun, %recall, %macro, %save and %pastebin. You can use a standard format to refer to lines:
%pastebin 3 18-20 ~1/1-5
This will take line 3 and lines 18 to 20 from the current session, and lines 1-5 from the previous session.
See %history? for the Docstring and more examples.
Also, be sure to explore the capabilities of %store magic for lightweight persistence of variables in IPython.
Stores variables, aliases and macros in IPython’s database.
d = {'a': 1, 'b': 2}
%store d # stores the variable
del d
%store -r d # Refresh the variable from IPython's database.
>>> d
{'a': 1, 'b': 2}
To autorestore stored variables on startup, specifyc.StoreMagic.autorestore = True in ipython_config.py.
The %history command is awesome, but unfortunately it won't let you save things that were %paste 'd into the sesh. To do that I think you have to do %logstart at the beginning (although I haven't confirmed this works).
What I like to do is
%history -o -n -p -f filename.txt
which will save the output, line numbers, and '>>>' before each input (o, n, and p options). See the docs for %history here.
Just putting another suggesting in the bowl:
Spyder
It has History log and Variable explorer. If you have worked with MatLab, then you'll see the similarities.
As far as Linux goes, one can use script command to record the whole session. It is part of util-linux package so should be on most Linux systems . You can create and alias or function that will call script -c python and that will be saved to a typescript file. For instance, here's a reprint of one such file.
$ cat typescript
Script started on Sat 14 May 2016 08:30:08 AM MDT
Python 2.7.6 (default, Jun 22 2015, 17:58:13)
[GCC 4.8.2] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> print 'Hello Pythonic World'
Hello Pythonic World
>>>
Script done on Sat 14 May 2016 08:30:42 AM MDT
Small disadvantage here is that the script records everything , even line-feeds, whenever you hit backspaces , etc. So you may want to use col to clean up the output (see this post on Unix&Linux Stackexchange) .
there is another option --- pyslice.
in the "wxpython 2.8 docs demos and tools", there is a open source program named "pyslices".
you can use it like a editor, and it also support using like a console ---- executing each line like a interactive interpreter with immediate echo.
of course, all the blocks of codes and results of each block will be recorded into a txt file automatically.
the results are logged just behind the corresponding block of code. very convenient.
In IPython, I first use
In [2]: %hist
to view my past code. I select the chunk I want to save and then paste it into file my_file.py using the %%file magic (short for %%writefile)
In [3]: %%file my_file.py
...: # paste code here
...:
...:
hitting return two times in the end.
To append to file use the option -a: %%file -a my_file.py.
If needed, I can list, edit, etc. the file in the underlying command line using the exclamation mark
In [5]: !ls -l my_file.py
In [6]: !vi my_file.py
Some comments were asking how to save all of the IPython inputs at once. For %save magic in IPython, you can save all of the commands programmatically as shown below, to avoid the prompt message and also to avoid specifying the input numbers.
currentLine = len(In)-1
%save -f my_session 1-$currentLine
The -f option is used for forcing file replacement and the len(IN)-1 shows the current input prompt in IPython, allowing you to save the whole session programmatically.
For those using spacemacs, and ipython that comes with python-layer, save magic creates a lot of unwanted output, because of the constant auto-completion command working in the backround such as:
len(all_suffixes)
';'.join(__PYTHON_EL_get_completions('''len'''))
';'.join(__PYTHON_EL_get_completions('''all_substa'''))
len(all_substantives_w_suffixes)
';'.join(__PYTHON_EL_get_completions('''len'''))
';'.join(__PYTHON_EL_get_completions('''all'''))
';'.join(__PYTHON_EL_get_completions('''all_'''))
';'.join(__PYTHON_EL_get_completions('''all_w'''))
';'.join(__PYTHON_EL_get_completions('''all_wo'''))
';'.join(__PYTHON_EL_get_completions('''all_wor'''))
';'.join(__PYTHON_EL_get_completions('''all_word'''))
';'.join(__PYTHON_EL_get_completions('''all_words'''))
len(all_words_w_logograms)
len(all_verbs)
To avoid this just save the ipython buffer like you normally save any other: spc f s
If you use bpython, all your command history is by default saved to ~/.pythonhist.
To save the commands for later reusage you can copy them to a python script file:
$ cp ~/.pythonhist mycommands.py
Then edit that file to clean it up and put it under Python path (global or virtual environment's site-packages, current directory, mentioning in *.pth, or some other way).
To include the commands into your shell, just import them from the saved file:
>>> from mycommands import *
I'd like to suggest another way to maintain python session through tmux on linux. you run tmux, attach your self to the session you opened (if not attached after opening it directly). execute python and do whatever you are doing on it. then detach from session. detaching from a tmux session does not close the session. the session remains open.
pros of this method:
you can attach to this session from any other device (in case you can ssh your pc)
cons of this method:
this method does not relinquish the resources used by the opened python session until you actually exist the python interpreter.
To save input and output on XUbuntu:
In XWindows, run iPython from the Xfce terminal app
click Terminal in the top menu bar and look for save contents in the dropdown
I find this saves the input and output, going all the way back to when I opened the terminal. This is not ipython specific, and would work with ssh sessions or other tasks run from the terminal window.
You can use built-in function open: I use it in all of my
programs in which I need to store some history (Including Calculator, etc.)
for example:
#gk-test.py or anything else would do
try: # use the try loop only if you haven't created the history file outside program
username = open("history.txt").readline().strip("\n")
user_age = open("history.txt").readlines()[1].strip("\n")
except FileNotFoundError:
username = input("Enter Username: ")
user_age = input("Enter User's Age: ")
open("history.txt", "w").write(f"{username}\n{user_age}")
#Rest of the code is secret! try it your own!
I would thank to all of them who liked my comments! Thank you for reading this!