diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'src/mailman/commands/docs')
| -rw-r--r-- | src/mailman/commands/docs/withlist.rst | 53 |
1 files changed, 38 insertions, 15 deletions
diff --git a/src/mailman/commands/docs/withlist.rst b/src/mailman/commands/docs/withlist.rst index 321b6e68a..d551cb9d6 100644 --- a/src/mailman/commands/docs/withlist.rst +++ b/src/mailman/commands/docs/withlist.rst @@ -2,12 +2,10 @@ Operating on mailing lists ========================== -The ``withlist`` command is a pretty powerful way to operate on mailing lists -from the command line. This command allows you to interact with a list at a -Python prompt, or process one or more mailing lists through custom made Python -functions. - -XXX Test the interactive operation of withlist +The ``shell`` (alias: ``withlist``) command is a pretty powerful way to +operate on mailing lists from the command line. This command allows you to +interact with a list at a Python prompt, or process one or more mailing lists +through custom made Python functions. Getting detailed help @@ -119,20 +117,45 @@ You also get an error if no mailing list is named. --run requires a mailing list name +Interactive use +=============== + +You can also get an interactive prompt which allows you to inspect a live +Mailman system directly. Through the ``mailman.cfg`` file, you can set the +prompt and banner, and you can choose between the standard Python REPL_ or +IPython. + +If the `GNU readline`_ library is available, it will be enabled automatically, +giving you command line editing and other features. You can also set the +``[shell]history_file`` variable in the ``mailman.cfg`` file and when the +normal Python REPL is used, your interactive commands will be written to and +read from this file. + +Note that the ``$PYTHONSTARTUP`` environment variable will also be honored if +set, and any file named by this variable will be read at start up time. It's +common practice to *also* enable GNU readline history in a ``$PYTHONSTARTUP`` +file and if you do this, be aware that it will interact badly with +``[shell]history_file``, causing your history to be written twice. To disable +this when using the interactive ``shell`` command, do something like:: + + $ PYTHONSTARTUP= mailman shell + +to temporarily unset the environment variable. + + IPython -======= +------- -You can use `IPython`_ as the interactive shell by changing certain -configuration variables in the `[shell]` section of your `mailman.cfg` file. -Set `use_ipython` to "yes" to switch to IPython, which must be installed on -your system. +You can use IPython_ as the interactive shell by setting the +``[shell]use_ipython`` variables in your `mailman.cfg` file to ``yes``. +IPython must be installed and available on your system -Other configuration variables in the `[shell]` section can be used to -configure other aspects of the interactive shell. You can change both the -prompt and the banner. +When using IPython, the ``[shell]history_file`` is not used. .. Clean up >>> sys.path = old_path -.. _`IPython`: http://ipython.org/ +.. _IPython: http://ipython.org/ +.. _REPL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REPL +.. _`GNU readline`: https://docs.python.org/3/library/readline.html |