Can't send input to running program in Sublime Text

Question

I'm trying to get Sublime Text 3 to run a Python script. A simple two liner

var = raw_input("Enter something: ")
print("You entered " + var)

which asks for input, waits for it, then prints it out in windows console prompt.

Seeing the number of similar questions on the site, this is a problem for quite a number of users, so I went through those and tried ... stuff. Made a copy of exec.py file, commented that one line, made a new pythonw build file, tried messing about with the build file ... nothing seems to work.

In lack of a definite solution, how do you work with input using Sublime Text?

Answer 1

Sublime Text on its own cannot handle input via raw_input() (Python 2) or input() (Python 3). The same is true of other languages as well - Ruby's gets, Java's Scanner class, Node's readline class, scanf in C, cin in C++, etc. One short-term solution is to get Package Control if you don't already have it, then install SublimeREPL. It allows you to transfer or run part or all of your code through the running REPL. It may require some configuration of the Main.sublime-menu files to get your preferred interpreter to run properly. Alternatively, you can use the excellent Terminus plugin - details are at the bottom.

If the code you're running doesn't play well with SublimeREPL (for instance, you're using C/C++/Java/etc. and need to compile code before it runs), or you just want to run it independently of Sublime, you'll need to make your own build system. Save the following as Packages/User/Python_cmd.sublime-build:

Windows

{
    "cmd": ["start", "cmd", "/k", "c:/python38/python.exe", "$file"],
    "selector": "source.python",
    "shell": true,
    "working_dir": "$file_dir",
    "env": {"PYTHONIOENCODING": "utf-8"}
}

changing the path to your Python executable as appropriate. Then, go to Tools -> Build System and select Python_cmd, and when you hit CtrlB to build, a new cmd window will open up with your file running. The /k option returns to the command prompt, without closing the window, after your program is done running so you can examine output, tracebacks, etc.

Please note that this build system is Windows-specific, as macOS and Linux do not have cmd. Build systems for those platforms are below.

---

macOS

If you are running OS X/macOS, the following build system will open your program in a new instance of Terminal. Save it as Packages/User/Python_Terminal.sublime-build. In my testing on macOS 10.15, the Terminal window didn't always come to the top when activated, so if you may need to look for it behind other windows.

{
    "shell_cmd": "osascript -e 'tell app \"Terminal\" to do script \"cd $file_path && python3 -u $file\"'",
    "working_dir": "$file_path",
    "selector": "source.python",
    "env": {"PYTHONIOENCODING": "utf-8"}
}

You may need to specify the path to your Python executable if it's not on your $PATH.

---

Linux

And finally, here is a build system for Linux. It was tested on Ubuntu, so if you use another distribution you'll need to ensure that gnome-terminal is installed. Save it as Packages/User/Python_shell.sublime-build. Once the program has finished running, hit any key to close the window.

{
    "shell_cmd": "gnome-terminal --working-directory=$file_path -- bash -c 'python3 -u \"$file\" && read -n 1 -s -r'",
    "working_dir": "$file_path",
    "selector": "source.python",
    "env": {"PYTHONIOENCODING": "utf-8"}
}

---

For reference, the Packages directory is the one opened when selecting Preferences → Browse Packages…:

• Linux: ~/.config/sublime-text-3/Packages or ~/.config/sublime-text/Packages
• OS X: ~/Library/Application Support/Sublime Text 3/Packages or ~/Library/Application Support/Sublime Text/Packages
• Windows Regular Install: C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Sublime Text 3\Packages or C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Sublime Text\Packages
• Windows Portable Install: InstallationFolder\Sublime Text 3\Data\Packages InstallationFolder\Sublime Text\Data\Packages

^{The exact path depends on version and whether or not you upgraded from Sublime Text 3.}

I have only tested these build systems with Python, but they should work fine for any language. When modifying, just make sure that all the single and double quotes match up – you'll get errors or unexpected behavior if they don't.

---

UPDATE

There is a platform-independent plugin called Terminus that, among other things, provides a drop-in replacement for the default exec build system engine. It allows you to interact with your program in the build panel below your code. Once you've installed it from Package Control, create the following build system (again, for Python):

{
    "target": "terminus_exec",
    "cancel": "terminus_cancel_build",
    "cmd": [
        "/path/to/python", "-u", "$file"
    ],
    "working_dir": "$file_path",
    "file_regex": "^[ ]*File \"(...*?)\", line ([0-9]*)",
}

You'll need to adjust the path to your Python executable, as above. Make sure you read the documentation to find out all the other ways you can make use of this great plugin.