cmd is a Python Standard Library module for constructing command-prompt applications. It's very easy to use - just subclass its
Cmd type, create an instance, and call that instance's
.cmdloop(). To support a command, just write a
do_yourcommandname(self, arg) method within your Cmd instance.
cmd is also very bare-bones. It forms the backbone of sqlpython, and while improving that package, I've created
cmd2.
cmd2 is an extension for
cmd that adds helpful functionality without requiring any changes to
cmd-based applications.
- Searchable command history
- Load commands from file, save to file, edit commands in file
- Multi-line commands
- Case-insensitive commands
- Special-character shortcut commands (beyond cmd's "@" and "!")
- Settable environment parameters
- Parsing commands with flags
I've found several alternatives to
cmd in the Cheese Shop -
CmdLoop,
cly,
CMdO, and
pycopia.
cly looks wonderful, but I haven't been able to get it working under Windows, and that's a show-stopper for many potential sqlpython users. In any case, none of the alternatives are based on
cmd - they're written from scratch, which means that a
cmd-based app would need complete rewriting to use them. I like sticking close to the Standard Library whenever possible.
cmd2 lets you do that.
Switching a
cmd application to
cmd2 is as simple as changing from
from cmd import Cmd to
from cmd2 import Cmd, and the new functionality is ready to go. See a
usage example of cmd2.
It's in the Cheese Shop, so you can
easy_install cmd2. (
Cheese Shop page for cmd2)
