python line editing telnet server

Question

Hi, I am creating a server in python (what it is doing is irrelevant), but I would like it to accept telnet connections and provide a command line interface with line editing capabilities (tabcompletion, emacs/vi-mode, etc) and history per session. I have successfully created the telnet session, disabled line mode and enabled server echo.

My initial thoughts were using readline but the python readline module seems to only work for a single session on stdin; and examining the underlying readline library that seems to be the way it works.

What I would like to do however is to create an instance (call it state if you like) for each client, and as characters (bytes) are received feed to the state. Once a complete line has been generated it would pass it to the server which may parse it.

So my question is if there is a library which handles this kind of thing, even a c-library would be sufficient.

EDIT: To clarify, I've got a fully functional server already, but I want the telnet interface as an add on to reconfigure, get information, etc.

Answer 1

Perhaps the cmd library could be of interest/help?

Answer 2

It sounds like you've got the TELNET part sorted, and now you want to provide features commonly found in shells like BASH, KSH etc. I've not tried it myself, but have a look as shython: "a versatile shell having features of both bash and python".

Answer 3

You need telnetlib http://docs.python.org/library/telnetlib.html?highlight=telnet#module-telnetlib