quit() and exit() don't work in interactive help

[catafest]

Bug report

Bug description:

I tried to use quit and exit to return to the interactive Python shell but these not work. I need to use Ctr +Z.

Python 3.13.0a1 (tags/v3.13.0a1:ad056f0, Oct 13 2023, 09:51:17) [MSC v.1935 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
# Add a code block here, if required
help> exit()
No Python documentation found for 'exit()'.
Use help() to get the interactive help utility.
Use help(str) for help on the str class.

help> quit()
No Python documentation found for 'quit()'.
Use help() to get the interactive help utility.
Use help(str) for help on the str class.

CPython versions tested on:

3.13

Operating systems tested on:

Windows

Linked PRs

• gh-112007: Re-organize help utility intro message #112017
• [3.12] gh-112007: Re-organize help utility intro message (GH-112017) #112047
• [3.11] gh-112007: Re-organize help utility intro message (GH-112017) #112048

[hugovk]

Working as expected on macOS, installed using the "macOS 64-bit universal2 installer" from https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-3130a1/

❯ python3.13
Python 3.13.0a1 (v3.13.0a1:ad056f03ae, Oct 13 2023, 06:35:05) [Clang 13.0.0 (clang-1300.0.29.30)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> exit()

❯ python3.13
Python 3.13.0a1 (v3.13.0a1:ad056f03ae, Oct 13 2023, 06:35:05) [Clang 13.0.0 (clang-1300.0.29.30)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> quit()

❯ python3.13
Python 3.13.0a1 (v3.13.0a1:ad056f03ae, Oct 13 2023, 06:35:05) [Clang 13.0.0 (clang-1300.0.29.30)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> ^D

❯ python3.13
Python 3.13.0a1 (v3.13.0a1:ad056f03ae, Oct 13 2023, 06:35:05) [Clang 13.0.0 (clang-1300.0.29.30)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>
[1]  + 65866 suspended  python3.13

Also built from latest main:

❯ ./python.exe
Python 3.13.0a1+ (heads/main:b2af50cb02, Nov 12 2023, 18:24:40) [Clang 15.0.0 (clang-1500.0.40.1)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> exit()

❯ ./python.exe
Python 3.13.0a1+ (heads/main:b2af50cb02, Nov 12 2023, 18:24:40) [Clang 15.0.0 (clang-1500.0.40.1)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> quit()

❯ ./python.exe
Python 3.13.0a1+ (heads/main:b2af50cb02, Nov 12 2023, 18:24:40) [Clang 15.0.0 (clang-1500.0.40.1)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> ^D

❯ ./python.exe
Python 3.13.0a1+ (heads/main:b2af50cb02, Nov 12 2023, 18:24:40) [Clang 15.0.0 (clang-1500.0.40.1)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>
[2]  + 65953 suspended  ./python.exe

[hugovk]

help> exit()
No Python documentation found for 'exit()'.
Use help() to get the interactive help utility.
Use help(str) for help on the str class.

But this bit is interesting, have you run help() first to enter the interactive help?

Do you have the PYTHONSTARTUP env var set and pointing to a startup script?

[DanielFrantes]

It works for me. Both shell and IDLE

Windows 11 Home
23H2
22631.2506

[DanielFrantes]

@catafest Exactly what Windows are you using?

[serhiy-storchaka]

The title was wrong and misleading. The correct title is "quit() and exit() don't work on interactive help".

And this is right. When you enter an interactive help, you get a long introduction message that includes: To quit this help utility and return to the interpreter, just type "quit". Not quit(), simply quit.

[zware]

This isn't version or platform specific. As Serhiy mentioned, there's no bug here from the perspective of an understanding of the code. However, it does strike me as being new user unfriendly, and we may want to improve it. There's an easy fix: just add quit() to the if request.lower() in ('q', 'quit'): break line in pydoc.Helper.interact. Another option would be to check for () in the input and either silently strip it or emit a "you probably didn't mean this here" message.

[terryjreedy]

I think that this sentence, 'To quit this help utility and return to the interpreter, just type "quit".' in pydoc.Helper.intro should be moved to the end after a blank line. It is now in the middle of things to do other than quitting. I suspect that it was once the last sentence before more was added. I will submit a PR with this and a couple of other re-groupings.

[terryjreedy]

To me, changing this string in the pydoc module is equivalent to a doc change and should be backported. test_pydoc still passes as is, and I don't think anyone else should depend on the exact content. Any disagreement?

[terryjreedy]

I added 'q' as an alternative. I had not idea that it worked until I read the code quoted above by 'zware'.

[terryjreedy]

I think that this revision should be sufficient for now. The previously not mentioned 'q', now easy to see, is the easiest way to exit.