Arrow keys not working with Python 2.6rc1

[Chewie]

BPO	3869
Nosy	@gpshead, @benjaminp

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2008-09-14.20:55:19.160>
created_at = <Date 2008-09-14.16:25:15.822>
labels = ['type-bug', 'invalid']
title = 'Arrow keys not working with Python 2.6rc1'
updated_at = <Date 2008-09-14.20:55:19.159>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/Chewie'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2008-09-14.20:55:19.159>
actor = 'benjamin.peterson'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2008-09-14.20:55:19.160>
closer = 'benjamin.peterson'
components = []
creation = <Date 2008-09-14.16:25:15.822>
creator = 'Chewie'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 3869
keywords = []
message_count = 5.0
messages = ['73229', '73230', '73233', '73234', '73236']
nosy_count = 3.0
nosy_names = ['gregory.p.smith', 'benjamin.peterson', 'Chewie']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'not a bug'
stage = None
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue3869'
versions = ['Python 2.6']

[Chewie]

On Xubuntu 8.04. In Python2.5 arrow keys allowed you to scroll through
previous lines typed but with 2.6rc1 this stopped working and it's now
just typing the ^[[A^[[B^[[D^[[C characters.

[benjaminp]

This probably has something to do with your readline build? Did you
compile Python yourself?

[Chewie]

Yes I did the configure / compile myself.

After reading about readline in setup I am still unable to enable it but
I guess it is not a bug in Python but more a user problem.

I am quite puzzled as to why something like this would stop being
enabled by defualt tho, pretty sure I don't know anyone who doesn't use
input history.

[gpshead]

ubuntu? make sure you have the libreadline5-dev package installed.
then make distclean && ./configure && make

[Chewie]

That was it.

Needed to install libreadline5-dev.

Then the default settings for readline in Modules/setup needs
uncommented (line 165 in the current version) and it works.

Thank you kindly.