SF #558432: Prevent Annoying ' ' from readline (Holker Krekel).

gvanrossum · gvanrossum · commit 84271bb34fa2 · 2002-05-30T15:41:56.000Z
readline in all python versions is configured
    to append a 'space' character for a successful
    completion. But for almost all python expressions
    'space' is not wanted (see coding conventions PEP 8).
    For example if you have a function 'longfunction'
    and you type 'longf&lt;TAB&gt;' you get 'longfunction '
    as a completion. note the unwanted space at the
    end.

    The patch fixes this behaviour by setting readline's
    append_character to '\0' which means don't append
    anything. This doesn't work with readline &lt; 2.1
    (AFAIK nowadays readline2.2 is in good use).

    An alternative approach would be to make the
    append_character
    accessable from python so that modules like
    the rlcompleter.py can set it to '\0'.

[Ed.: I think expecting readline &gt;= 2.2 is fine.  If a completer wants
another character they can append that to the keyword in the list.]
diff --git a/Modules/readline.c b/Modules/readline.c
@@ -573,6 +573,7 @@ setup_readline(void)
 	rl_completer_word_break_characters =
 		strdup(" \t\n`~!@#$%^&*()-=+[{]}\\|;:'\",<>/?");
 		/* All nonalphanums except '.' */
+	rl_completion_append_character ='\0';
 
 	begidx = PyInt_FromLong(0L);
 	endidx = PyInt_FromLong(0L);
