Doc/lib/librlcompleter.tex

   1 \section{\module{rlcompleter} ---
   2          Completion function for readline}
   3
   4 \declaremodule{standard}{rlcompleter}
   5 \sectionauthor{Moshe Zadka}{mzadka@geocities.com}
   6 \modulesynopsis{Python identifier completion in the readline library.}
   7
   8 The \module{rlcompleter} module defines a completion function for
   9 the \module{readline} module by completing valid Python identifiers and
  10 keyword.
  11
  12 The \module{rlcompleter} module defines the \class{Completer} class.
  13
  14 Example:
  15
  16 \begin{verbatim}
  17 >>> import rlcompleter
  18 >>> import readline
  19 >>> readline.parse_and_bind("tab: complete")
  20 >>> readline. <TAB PRESSED>
  21 readline.__doc__          readline.get_line_buffer  readline.read_init_file
  22 readline.__file__         readline.insert_text      readline.set_completer
  23 readline.__name__         readline.parse_and_bind
  24 >>> readline.
  25 \end{verbatim}
  26
  27 The \module{rlcompleter} module is designed for use with Python's
  28 interactive mode.  A user can add the following lines to his or her
  29 initialization file (identified by the \envvar{PYTHONSTARTUP}
  30 environment variable) to get automatic \kbd{Tab} completion:
  31
  32 \begin{verbatim}
  33 try:
  34     import readline
  35 except ImportError:
  36     print "Module readline not available."
  37 else:
  38     import rlcompleter
  39     readline.parse_and_bind("tab: complete")
  40 \end{verbatim}
  41
  42
  43 \subsection{Completer Objects \label{completer-objects}}
  44
  45 Completer objects have the following method:
  46
  47 \begin{methoddesc}[Completer]{complete}{text, state}
  48 Return the \var{state}th completion for \var{text}.
  49
  50 If called for \var{text} that doesn't includea period character
  51 (\character{.}), it will complete from names currently defined in
  52 \refmodule[main]{__main__}, \refmodule[builtin]{__builtin__} and
  53 keywords (as defined by the \refmodule{keyword} module).
  54
  55 If called for a dotted name, it will try to evaluate anything without
  56 obvious side-effects (i.e., functions will not be evaluated, but it
  57 can generate calls to \method{__getattr__()}) upto the last part, and
  58 find matches for the rest via the \function{dir()} function.
  59 \end{methoddesc}