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1:mod:`!rlcompleter` --- Completion function for GNU readline
2============================================================
3
4.. module:: rlcompleter
5   :synopsis: Python identifier completion, suitable for the GNU readline library.
6
7.. sectionauthor:: Moshe Zadka <moshez@zadka.site.co.il>
8
9**Source code:** :source:`Lib/rlcompleter.py`
10
11--------------
12
13The :mod:`!rlcompleter` module defines a completion function suitable to be
14passed to :func:`~readline.set_completer` in the :mod:`readline` module.
15
16When this module is imported on a Unix platform with the :mod:`readline` module
17available, an instance of the :class:`Completer` class is automatically created
18and its :meth:`~Completer.complete` method is set as the
19:ref:`readline completer <readline-completion>`. The method provides
20completion of valid Python :ref:`identifiers and keywords <identifiers>`.
21
22Example::
23
24   >>> import rlcompleter
25   >>> import readline
26   >>> readline.parse_and_bind("tab: complete")
27   >>> readline. <TAB PRESSED>
28   readline.__doc__          readline.get_line_buffer(  readline.read_init_file(
29   readline.__file__         readline.insert_text(      readline.set_completer(
30   readline.__name__         readline.parse_and_bind(
31   >>> readline.
32
33The :mod:`!rlcompleter` module is designed for use with Python's
34:ref:`interactive mode <tut-interactive>`.  Unless Python is run with the
35:option:`-S` option, the module is automatically imported and configured
36(see :ref:`rlcompleter-config`).
37
38On platforms without :mod:`readline`, the :class:`Completer` class defined by
39this module can still be used for custom purposes.
40
41
42.. _completer-objects:
43
44.. class:: Completer
45
46   Completer objects have the following method:
47
48   .. method:: Completer.complete(text, state)
49
50      Return the next possible completion for *text*.
51
52      When called by the :mod:`readline` module, this method is called
53      successively with ``state == 0, 1, 2, ...`` until the method returns
54      ``None``.
55
56      If called for *text* that doesn't include a period character (``'.'``), it will
57      complete from names currently defined in :mod:`__main__`, :mod:`builtins` and
58      keywords (as defined by the :mod:`keyword` module).
59
60      If called for a dotted name, it will try to evaluate anything without obvious
61      side-effects (functions will not be evaluated, but it can generate calls to
62      :meth:`~object.__getattr__`) up to the last part, and find matches for the
63      rest via the :func:`dir` function.  Any exception raised during the
64      evaluation of the expression is caught, silenced and :const:`None` is
65      returned.
66