Add auto-completion and a stored history file of commands to vanilla Python interactive interpreter.

.pythonrc

# Add auto-completion and a stored history file of commands to vanilla 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 $HOME/.pystartup, and set an environment variable to point
# to it:  "export PYTHONSTARTUP=$HOME/.pystartup" in bash.


def init():
    init_tab_completion()
    init_history()

def init_tab_completion():
    import rlcompleter
    readline.parse_and_bind("tab: complete")

def init_history():
    import atexit
    import os
    import readline
    import rlcompleter
    import sys

    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)

try:
    import readline
except ImportError:
    print ("Module readline is not available. "
           "History and completion will be unavailable.")
else:
    init()
    # cleanup global namespace
    del readline
finally:
    del init, init_history, init_tab_completion