How to get Linux console window width in Python

Question

Is there a way in python to programmatically determine the width of the console  I mean the number of characters that fits in one line without wrapping  not the pixel width of the window   Edit  Looking for a solution that works on Linux

User · Answer

I searched around and found a solution for windows at :

http://code.activestate.com/recipes/440694-determine-size-of-console-window-on-windows/

and a solution for linux here.

So here is a version which works both on linux, os x and windows/cygwin :

""" getTerminalSize()
 - get width and height of console
 - works on linux,os x,windows,cygwin(windows)
"""

__all__=['getTerminalSize']


def getTerminalSize():
   import platform
   current_os = platform.system()
   tuple_xy=None
   if current_os == 'Windows':
       tuple_xy = _getTerminalSize_windows()
       if tuple_xy is None:
          tuple_xy = _getTerminalSize_tput()
          # needed for window's python in cygwin's xterm!
   if current_os == 'Linux' or current_os == 'Darwin' or  current_os.startswith('CYGWIN'):
       tuple_xy = _getTerminalSize_linux()
   if tuple_xy is None:
       print "default"
       tuple_xy = (80, 25)      # default value
   return tuple_xy

def _getTerminalSize_windows():
    res=None
    try:
        from ctypes import windll, create_string_buffer

        # stdin handle is -10
        # stdout handle is -11
        # stderr handle is -12

        h = windll.kernel32.GetStdHandle(-12)
        csbi = create_string_buffer(22)
        res = windll.kernel32.GetConsoleScreenBufferInfo(h, csbi)
    except:
        return None
    if res:
        import struct
        (bufx, bufy, curx, cury, wattr,
         left, top, right, bottom, maxx, maxy) = struct.unpack("hhhhHhhhhhh", csbi.raw)
        sizex = right - left + 1
        sizey = bottom - top + 1
        return sizex, sizey
    else:
        return None

def _getTerminalSize_tput():
    # get terminal width
    # src: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/263890/how-do-i-find-the-width-height-of-a-terminal-window
    try:
       import subprocess
       proc=subprocess.Popen(["tput", "cols"],stdin=subprocess.PIPE,stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
       output=proc.communicate(input=None)
       cols=int(output[0])
       proc=subprocess.Popen(["tput", "lines"],stdin=subprocess.PIPE,stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
       output=proc.communicate(input=None)
       rows=int(output[0])
       return (cols,rows)
    except:
       return None


def _getTerminalSize_linux():
    def ioctl_GWINSZ(fd):
        try:
            import fcntl, termios, struct, os
            cr = struct.unpack('hh', fcntl.ioctl(fd, termios.TIOCGWINSZ,'1234'))
        except:
            return None
        return cr
    cr = ioctl_GWINSZ(0) or ioctl_GWINSZ(1) or ioctl_GWINSZ(2)
    if not cr:
        try:
            fd = os.open(os.ctermid(), os.O_RDONLY)
            cr = ioctl_GWINSZ(fd)
            os.close(fd)
        except:
            pass
    if not cr:
        try:
            cr = (env['LINES'], env['COLUMNS'])
        except:
            return None
    return int(cr[1]), int(cr[0])

if __name__ == "__main__":
    sizex,sizey=getTerminalSize()
    print  'width =',sizex,'height =',sizey

User · Answer

I was trying the solution from here that calls out to stty size   columns   int subprocess check output   stty    size    split   1     However this failed for me because I was working on a script that expects redirected input on stdin  and stty would complain that  stdin isn t a terminal  in that case   I was able to make it work like this   with open   dev tty   as tty      height  width   subprocess check output   stty    size    stdin tty  split

User · Answer

It looks like there are some problems with that code  Johannes    getTerminalSize needs to import os what is env  looks like os environ    Also  why switch lines and cols before returning  If TIOCGWINSZ and stty both say lines then cols  I say leave it that way  This confused me for a good 10 minutes before I noticed the inconsistency   Sridhar  I didn t get that error when I piped output  I m pretty sure it s being caught properly in the try-except   pascal   HHHH  doesn t work on my machine  but  hh  does  I had trouble finding documentation for that function  It looks like it s platform dependent   chochem  incorporated   Here s my version   def getTerminalSize                returns  lines int  cols int              import os  struct     def ioctl GWINSZ fd           import fcntl  termios         return struct unpack  hh   fcntl ioctl fd  termios TIOCGWINSZ   1234          try stdin  stdout  stderr     for fd in  0  1  2           try              return ioctl GWINSZ fd          except              pass       try os ctermid       try          fd   os open os ctermid    os O RDONLY          try              return ioctl GWINSZ fd          finally              os close fd      except          pass       try  stty size      try          return tuple int x  for x in os popen  stty size    r   read   split        except          pass       try environment variables     try          return tuple int os getenv var   for var in   LINES    COLUMNS        except          pass       i give up  return default      return  25  80

User · Answer

import os rows  columns   os popen  stty size    r   read   split     uses the  stty size  command which according to a thread on the python mailing list is reasonably universal on linux  It opens the  stty size  command as a file   reads  from it  and uses a simple string split to separate the coordinates   Unlike the os environ  COLUMNS   value  which I can t access in spite of using bash as my standard shell  the data will also be up-to-date whereas I believe the os environ  COLUMNS   value would only be valid for the time of the launch of the python interpreter  suppose the user resized the window since then     See answer by  GringoSuave on how to do this on python 3 3

User · Answer

If you re using Python 3 3 or above  I d recommend the built-in get terminal size   as already recommended  However if you are stuck with an older version and want a simple  cross-platform way  of doing this  you could use asciimatics   This package supports versions of Python back to 2 7 and uses similar options to those suggested above to get the current terminal console size   Simply construct your Screen class and use the dimensions property to get the height and width   This has been proven to work on Linux  OSX and Windows   Oh - and full disclosure here  I am the author  so please feel free to open a new issue if you have any problems getting this to work

User · Answer

Starting at Python 3 3 it is straight forward  https   docs python org 3 library os html querying-the-size-of-a-terminal   gt  gt  gt  import os  gt  gt  gt  ts   os get terminal size    gt  gt  gt  ts lines 24  gt  gt  gt  ts columns 80

User · Answer

reannual s answer works well  but there s an issue with it  os popen is now deprecated  The subprocess module should be used instead  so here s a version of  reannual s code that uses subprocess and directly answers the question  by giving the column width directly as an int   import subprocess  columns   int subprocess check output   stty    size    split   1     Tested on OS X 10 9

User · Answer

It s either   import os columns  rows   os get terminal size 0    or import shutil columns  rows   shutil get terminal size     The shutil function is just a wrapper around os one that catches some errors and set up a fallback  however it has one huge caveat - it breaks when piping   which is a pretty huge deal  To get terminal size when piping use os get terminal size 0  instead   First argument 0 is an argument indicating that stdin file descriptor should be used instead of default stdout  We want to use stdin because stdout detaches itself when it is being piped which in this case raises an error   I ve tried to figure out when would it makes sense to use stdout instead of stdin argument and have no idea why it s a default here

User · Answer

Code above didn t return correct result on my linux because winsize-struct has 4 unsigned shorts  not 2 signed shorts   def terminal size        import fcntl  termios  struct     h  w  hp  wp   struct unpack  HHHH           fcntl ioctl 0  termios TIOCGWINSZ          struct pack  HHHH   0  0  0  0        return w  h   hp and hp should contain pixel width and height  but don t

User · Answer

Try  blessings   I was looking for the very same thing  It is very easy to use and offers tools for coloring  styling and positioning in the terminal  What you need is as easy as   from blessings import Terminal  t   Terminal    w   t width h   t height   Works like a charm in Linux   I m not sure about MacOSX and Windows   Download and documentation here  or you can install it with pip   pip install blessings

User · Answer

Many of the Python 2 implementations here will fail if there is no controlling terminal when you call this script   You can check sys stdout isatty   to determine if this is in fact a terminal  but that will exclude a bunch of cases  so I believe the most pythonic way to figure out the terminal size is to use the builtin curses package   import curses w   curses initscr   height  width   w getmaxyx

User · Answer

Not sure why it is in the module shutil  but it landed there in Python 3 3  Querying the size of the output terminal    gt  gt  gt  import shutil  gt  gt  gt  shutil get terminal size  80  20      pass fallback os terminal size columns 87  lines 23     returns a named-tuple   A low-level implementation is in the os module   Also works in Windows   A backport is now available for Python 3 2 and below     https   pypi python org pypi backports shutil get terminal size

User · Answer

use  import console  width  height    console getTerminalSize    print  Your terminal s width is   d    width   EDIT  oh  I m sorry  That s not a python standard lib one  here s the source of console py  I don t know where it s from    The module seems to work like that  It checks if termcap is available  when yes  It uses that  if no it checks whether the terminal supports a special ioctl call and that does not work  too  it checks for the environment variables some shells export for that  This will probably work on UNIX only   def getTerminalSize        import os     env   os environ     def ioctl GWINSZ fd           try              import fcntl  termios  struct  os             cr   struct unpack  hh   fcntl ioctl fd  termios TIOCGWINSZ           1234            except              return         return cr     cr   ioctl GWINSZ 0  or ioctl GWINSZ 1  or ioctl GWINSZ 2      if not cr          try              fd   os open os ctermid    os O RDONLY              cr   ioctl GWINSZ fd              os close fd          except              pass     if not cr          cr    env get  LINES   25   env get  COLUMNS   80                Use get key   default   instead of a try catch          try               cr    env  LINES    env  COLUMNS             except               cr    25  80      return int cr 1    int cr 0

User · Answer

Here is an version that should be Linux and Solaris compatible  Based on the posts and commments from madchine  Requires the subprocess module    def termsize        import shlex  subprocess  re     output   subprocess check output shlex split   bin stty -a        m   re search  rows D   P d    columns D   P d      output      if m          return m group  rows    m group  columns       raise OSError  Bad response   s     output          termsize     40    100

[python] How to get Linux console window width in Python

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