Overview

cmd2 is an extension of cmd, the Python Standard Library’s module for creating simple interactive command-line applications.

cmd2 can be used as a drop-in replacement for cmd. Simply importing cmd2 in place of cmd will add many features to an application without any further modifications.

Understanding the use of cmd is the first step in learning the use of cmd2. Once you have read the cmd docs, return here to learn the ways that cmd2 differs from cmd.

Note

cmd2 is not quite a drop-in replacement for cmd. The cmd.emptyline() function is called when an empty line is entered in response to the prompt. By default, in cmd if this method is not overridden, it repeats and executes the last nonempty command entered. However, no end user we have encountered views this as expected or desirable default behavior. Thus, the default behavior in cmd2 is to simply go to the next line and issue the prompt again. At this time, cmd2 completely ignores empty lines and the base class cmd.emptyline() method never gets called and thus the emptyline() behavior cannot be overridden.