mjhjmtu

Since upgrading to Python 3.4, all interactive commands are logged to ~/.python_history. I don't want Python to create or write to this file.

Creating a symlink to /dev/null does not work, Python removes the file and recreates it. The documentation suggests to delete the sys.__interactivehook__, but this also removes tab-completion. What should be done to disable writing this history file but still preserve tab-completion?

Additional details:

• Distro: Arch Linux x86_64


• readline 6.3-3


• python 3.4.0-2

As of Python 3.6, you can use readline.set_auto_history to disable this:

import readline
readline.set_auto_history(False)

This works for me.

Creating ~/.pythonrc file:

import os
import atexit
import readline

readline_history_file = os.path.join(os.path.expanduser('~'), '.python_history')
try:
 readline.read_history_file(readline_history_file)
except IOError:
 pass

readline.set_history_length(0)
atexit.register(readline.write_history_file, readline_history_file)

Then export it:

export PYTHONSTARTUP=~/.pythonrc

Until it's fixed in some way in Python itself you can do this on UNIX systems:

rm ~/.python-history
mkdir ~/.python-history
sudo chattr +i ~/.python-history || sudo chflags simmutable ~/.python-history

After that you will be getting

Error in atexit._run_exitfuncs:

IsADirectoryError: [Errno 21] Is a directory

every time you terminate a python shell. Exit status will still be 0.

Notice that if you leave it as file you need to create and make immutable another file, ~/.python_history

Put the following in a file and set PYTHONSTARTUP to it (or call the file sitecustomize.py and make it accessible from the PYTHONPATH)

import readline
import atexit
import sys

sys.__interactivehook__()
atexit.unregister(readline.write_history_file)

This way you'll still have access to tab-completion and previous history, but the commands you enter won't be added to the history file.

To prevent Python from writing ~/.python_history, disable the hook that activates this functionality:

import sys
# Disable history (...but also auto-completion :/ )
if hasattr(sys, '__interactivehook__'):
 del sys.__interactivehook__

If you would like to enable tab-completion and disable the history feature, you can adapt the site.enablerlcompleter code. Write the following code to ~/.pythonrc and set export PYTHONSTARTUP=~/.pythonrc in your shell to enable it.

import sys
def register_readline_completion():
 # rlcompleter must be loaded for Python-specific completion
 try: import readline, rlcompleter
 except ImportError: return
 # Enable tab-completion
 readline_doc = getattr(readline, '__doc__', '')
 if readline_doc is not None and 'libedit' in readline_doc:
 readline.parse_and_bind('bind ^I rl_complete')
 else:
 readline.parse_and_bind('tab: complete')
sys.__interactivehook__ = register_readline_completion

Another ~/.pythonrc solution:

import readline
readline.write_history_file = lambda *args: None

Here's my method (which turned out to be basically a more reliable and pythonic version of berdario's method). It only disables writing to .python_history, but not reading from it if it exists, or appending new lines to the current instance's history. I recommend saving it as site-packages/sitecustomize.py, because site is the module that both writes to .python_history and imports sitecustomize if it exists, although naming it something else and pointing to it with PYTHONSTARTUP works too.

import sys
oldhook = getattr(sys, '__interactivehook__', None)
if oldhook:
 def newhook():
 import readline, atexit
 oldhook()
 atexit.unregister(readline.write_history_file)
 sys.__interactivehook__ = newhook

update: what i did for 3.7, specific to my system, not pep8:

import rlcompleter,readline as r,sys
def f():r.parse_and_bind('tab:complete');r.read_init_file()
sys.__interactivehook__=f