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I wrote a python script and have been running it in terminal on Mac OS X snow leopard using python2.6. I used raw_input() to import text in several places, but I seem to reach a limit where it will no longer accept any more characters.

Is this a limit in python raw_input() or is this something to do with Terminal or Mac OSX?

Is there a better way to have the user input larger amounts of text in python?

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    Try testing Python raw_limit versus cat > file.txt in the shell. If both have problems, then it's a problem with the terminal. Commented Sep 9, 2011 at 4:00
  • It might help if you described the amount of text and generally what you're trying to have happen. If you're essentially writing a macro, then it makes more sense to operate on files IMHO. Commented Sep 9, 2011 at 4:01
  • An interesting update. If I call raw_input from python running in terminal, I can add as much text as I want. But within my script, when I add more than about a paragraph of text, the script locks up. What I thought was a limit on raw_input is actually the terminal window locking up or crashing I think. Commented Sep 9, 2011 at 4:19
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    fwiw, the max characters allowed are 1024 Commented Dec 14, 2017 at 19:53

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I had this same experience, and found python limits the length of input to raw_input if you do not import the readline module. Once I imported the readline module, it lifted the limit (or at least raised it significantly enough to where the text I was using worked just fine).

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2 Comments

Obscure, but worked for me too (using py3's input)
Also worked for me. One of the most weird bug/solution combos I have ever seen!
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I'd say it's a limitation/bug with the OSX Terminal - try running the script with input via IDLE and see whether you still hit the same problem.

As for better ways of dealing with large input - it totally depends on your requirements but some ways could be:

  • Import text from a file
  • Create some kind of GUI/frontend to handle text input via more user friendly controls
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I haven't used IDLE much, but it doesn't seem to be allowing me to paste input into IDLE.
@Thursdays: You won't be able to use your right-click context menu, but you can just choose "Paste" from the "Edit" menu or use the OSX paste shortcut (Cmd+V if I remember correctly)

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