24.2. cmd — Support for line-oriented command interpreters

Source code: Lib/cmd.py

The Cmd class provides a simple framework for writing line-oriented command interpreters. These are often useful for test harnesses, administrative tools, and prototypes that will later be wrapped in a more sophisticated interface.

class cmd.Cmd(completekey='tab', stdin=None, stdout=None)

A Cmd instance or subclass instance is a line-oriented interpreter framework. There is no good reason to instantiate Cmd itself; rather, it’s useful as a superclass of an interpreter class you define yourself in order to inherit Cmd’s methods and encapsulate action methods.

The optional argument completekey is the readline name of a completion key; it defaults to Tab. If completekey is not None and readline is available, command completion is done automatically.

The optional arguments stdin and stdout specify the input and output file objects that the Cmd instance or subclass instance will use for input and output. If not specified, they will default to sys.stdin and sys.stdout.

If you want a given stdin to be used, make sure to set the instance’s use_rawinput attribute to False, otherwise stdin will be ignored.

24.2.1. Cmd Objects

A Cmd instance has the following methods:

Cmd.cmdloop(intro=None)

Repeatedly issue a prompt, accept input, parse an initial prefix off the received input, and dispatch to action methods, passing them the remainder of the line as argument.

The optional argument is a banner or intro string to be issued before the first prompt (this overrides the intro class attribute).

If the readline module is loaded, input will automatically inherit bash-like history-list editing (e.g. Control-P scrolls back to the last command, Control-N forward to the next one, Control-F moves the cursor to the right non-destructively, Control-B moves the cursor to the left non-destructively, etc.).

An end-of-file on input is passed back as the string 'EOF'.

An interpreter instance will recognize a command name foo if and only if it has a method do_foo(). As a special case, a line beginning with the character '?' is dispatched to the method do_help(). As another special case, a line beginning with the character '!' is dispatched to the method do_shell() (if such a method is defined).

This method will return when the postcmd() method returns a true value. The stop argument to postcmd() is the return value from the command’s corresponding do_*() method.

If completion is enabled, completing commands will be done automatically, and completing of commands args is done by calling complete_foo() with arguments text, line, begidx, and endidx. text is the string prefix we are attempting to match: all returned matches must begin with it. line is the current input line with leading whitespace removed, begidx and endidx are the beginning and ending indexes of the prefix text, which could be used to provide different completion depending upon which position the argument is in.

All subclasses of Cmd inherit a predefined do_help(). This method, called with an argument 'bar', invokes the corresponding method help_bar(), and if that is not present, prints the docstring of do_bar(), if available. With no argument, do_help() lists all available help topics (that is, all commands with corresponding help_*() methods or commands that have docstrings), and also lists any undocumented commands.

Cmd.onecmd(str)

Interpret the argument as though it had been typed in response to the prompt. This may be overridden, but should not normally need to be; see the precmd() and postcmd() methods for useful execution hooks. The return value is a flag indicating whether interpretation of commands by the interpreter should stop. If there is a do_*() method for the command str, the return value of that method is returned, otherwise the return value from the default() method is returned.

Cmd.emptyline()

Method called when an empty line is entered in response to the prompt. If this method is not overridden, it repeats the last nonempty command entered.

Cmd.default(line)

Method called on an input line when the command prefix is not recognized. If this method is not overridden, it prints an error message and returns.

Cmd.completedefault(text, line, begidx, endidx)

Method called to complete an input line when no command-specific complete_*() method is available. By default, it returns an empty list.

Cmd.precmd(line)

Hook method executed just before the command line line is interpreted, but after the input prompt is generated and issued. This method is a stub in Cmd; it exists to be overridden by subclasses. The return value is used as the command which will be executed by the onecmd() method; the precmd() implementation may re-write the command or simply return line unchanged.

Cmd.postcmd(stop, line)

Hook method executed just after a command dispatch is finished. This method is a stub in Cmd; it exists to be overridden by subclasses. line is the command line which was executed, and stop is a flag which indicates whether execution will be terminated after the call to postcmd(); this will be the return value of the onecmd() method. The return value of this method will be used as the new value for the internal flag which corresponds to stop; returning false will cause interpretation to continue.

Cmd.preloop()

Hook method executed once when cmdloop() is called. This method is a stub in Cmd; it exists to be overridden by subclasses.

Cmd.postloop()

Hook method executed once when cmdloop() is about to return. This method is a stub in Cmd; it exists to be overridden by subclasses.

Instances of Cmd subclasses have some public instance variables:

Cmd.prompt

The prompt issued to solicit input.

Cmd.identchars

The string of characters accepted for the command prefix.

Cmd.lastcmd

The last nonempty command prefix seen.

Cmd.cmdqueue

A list of queued input lines. The cmdqueue list is checked in cmdloop() when new input is needed; if it is nonempty, its elements will be processed in order, as if entered at the prompt.

Cmd.intro

A string to issue as an intro or banner. May be overridden by giving the cmdloop() method an argument.

Cmd.doc_header

The header to issue if the help output has a section for documented commands.

Cmd.misc_header

The header to issue if the help output has a section for miscellaneous help topics (that is, there are help_*() methods without corresponding do_*() methods).

Cmd.undoc_header

The header to issue if the help output has a section for undocumented commands (that is, there are do_*() methods without corresponding help_*() methods).

Cmd.ruler

The character used to draw separator lines under the help-message headers. If empty, no ruler line is drawn. It defaults to '='.

Cmd.use_rawinput

A flag, defaulting to true. If true, cmdloop() uses input() to display a prompt and read the next command; if false, sys.stdout.write() and sys.stdin.readline() are used. (This means that by importing readline, on systems that support it, the interpreter will automatically support Emacs-like line editing and command-history keystrokes.)

24.2.2. Cmd Example

The cmd module is mainly useful for building custom shells that let a user work with a program interactively.

This section presents a simple example of how to build a shell around a few of the commands in the turtle module.

Basic turtle commands such as forward() are added to a Cmd subclass with method named do_forward(). The argument is converted to a number and dispatched to the turtle module. The docstring is used in the help utility provided by the shell.

The example also includes a basic record and playback facility implemented with the precmd() method which is responsible for converting the input to lowercase and writing the commands to a file. The do_playback() method reads the file and adds the recorded commands to the cmdqueue for immediate playback:

import cmd, sys
from turtle import *

class TurtleShell(cmd.Cmd):
    intro = 'Welcome to the turtle shell.   Type help or ? to list commands.\n'
    prompt = '(turtle) '
    file = None

    # ----- basic turtle commands -----
    def do_forward(self, arg):
        'Move the turtle forward by the specified distance:  FORWARD 10'
        forward(*parse(arg))
    def do_right(self, arg):
        'Turn turtle right by given number of degrees:  RIGHT 20'
        right(*parse(arg))
    def do_left(self, arg):
        'Turn turtle left by given number of degrees:  LEFT 90'
        left(*parse(arg))
    def do_goto(self, arg):
        'Move turtle to an absolute position with changing orientation.  GOTO 100 200'
        goto(*parse(arg))
    def do_home(self, arg):
        'Return turtle to the home position:  HOME'
        home()
    def do_circle(self, arg):
        'Draw circle with given radius an options extent and steps:  CIRCLE 50'
        circle(*parse(arg))
    def do_position(self, arg):
        'Print the current turtle position:  POSITION'
        print('Current position is %d %d\n' % position())
    def do_heading(self, arg):
        'Print the current turtle heading in degrees:  HEADING'
        print('Current heading is %d\n' % (heading(),))
    def do_color(self, arg):
        'Set the color:  COLOR BLUE'
        color(arg.lower())
    def do_undo(self, arg):
        'Undo (repeatedly) the last turtle action(s):  UNDO'
    def do_reset(self, arg):
        'Clear the screen and return turtle to center:  RESET'
        reset()
    def do_bye(self, arg):
        'Stop recording, close the turtle window, and exit:  BYE'
        print('Thank you for using Turtle')
        self.close()
        bye()
        return True

    # ----- record and playback -----
    def do_record(self, arg):
        'Save future commands to filename:  RECORD rose.cmd'
        self.file = open(arg, 'w')
    def do_playback(self, arg):
        'Playback commands from a file:  PLAYBACK rose.cmd'
        self.close()
        with open(arg) as f:
            self.cmdqueue.extend(f.read().splitlines())
    def precmd(self, line):
        line = line.lower()
        if self.file and 'playback' not in line:
            print(line, file=self.file)
        return line
    def close(self):
        if self.file:
            self.file.close()
            self.file = None

def parse(arg):
    'Convert a series of zero or more numbers to an argument tuple'
    return tuple(map(int, arg.split()))

if __name__ == '__main__':
    TurtleShell().cmdloop()

Here is a sample session with the turtle shell showing the help functions, using blank lines to repeat commands, and the simple record and playback facility:

Welcome to the turtle shell.   Type help or ? to list commands.

(turtle) ?

Documented commands (type help <topic>):
========================================
bye     color    goto     home  playback  record  right
circle  forward  heading  left  position  reset   undo

(turtle) help forward
Move the turtle forward by the specified distance:  FORWARD 10
(turtle) record spiral.cmd
(turtle) position
Current position is 0 0

(turtle) heading
Current heading is 0

(turtle) reset
(turtle) circle 20
(turtle) right 30
(turtle) circle 40
(turtle) right 30
(turtle) circle 60
(turtle) right 30
(turtle) circle 80
(turtle) right 30
(turtle) circle 100
(turtle) right 30
(turtle) circle 120
(turtle) right 30
(turtle) circle 120
(turtle) heading
Current heading is 180

(turtle) forward 100
(turtle)
(turtle) right 90
(turtle) forward 100
(turtle)
(turtle) right 90
(turtle) forward 400
(turtle) right 90
(turtle) forward 500
(turtle) right 90
(turtle) forward 400
(turtle) right 90
(turtle) forward 300
(turtle) playback spiral.cmd
Current position is 0 0

Current heading is 0

Current heading is 180

(turtle) bye
Thank you for using Turtle