Export Python interpreter history to a file?

Question

Many times I will use the Python interpreter to inspect variables and step through commands before I actually write to a file. However by the end I have around 30 commands in the interpreter, and have to copy/paste them into a file to run. Is there a way I can export/write the Python interpreter history into a file?

For example

>>> a = 5 >>> b = a + 6 >>> import sys >>> export('history', 'interactions.py')  

And then I can open the interactions.py file and read:

a = 5 b = a + 6 import sys 

Answer 1

IPython is extremely useful if you like using interactive sessions. For example for your usecase there is the save 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)

Look at the videos on the documentation page to get a quick overview of the features.

::OR::

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 

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.

Answer 2

If you are using Linux/Mac and have readline library, you could add the following to a file and export it in your .bash_profile and you will have both completion and history.

# python startup file import readline import rlcompleter import atexit import os # tab completion readline.parse_and_bind('tab: complete') # history file histfile = os.path.join(os.environ['HOME'], '.pythonhistory') try:     readline.read_history_file(histfile) except IOError:     pass atexit.register(readline.write_history_file, histfile) del os, histfile, readline, rlcompleter 

Export command:

export PYTHONSTARTUP=path/to/.pythonstartup 

This will save your python console history at ~/.pythonhistory