How to create a spinning command line cursor?
Is there a way to print a spinning cursor in a terminal using Python?
Something like this, assuming your terminal handles \b
import sys
import time
def spinning_cursor():
while True:
for cursor in '|/-\\':
yield cursor
spinner = spinning_cursor()
for _ in range(50):
sys.stdout.write(next(spinner))
sys.stdout.flush()
time.sleep(0.1)
sys.stdout.write('\b')
Easy to use API (this will run the spinner in a separate thread):
import sys
import time
import threading
class Spinner:
busy = False
delay = 0.1
@staticmethod
def spinning_cursor():
while 1:
for cursor in '|/-\\': yield cursor
def __init__(self, delay=None):
self.spinner_generator = self.spinning_cursor()
if delay and float(delay): self.delay = delay
def spinner_task(self):
while self.busy:
sys.stdout.write(next(self.spinner_generator))
sys.stdout.flush()
time.sleep(self.delay)
sys.stdout.write('\b')
sys.stdout.flush()
def __enter__(self):
self.busy = True
threading.Thread(target=self.spinner_task).start()
def __exit__(self, exception, value, tb):
self.busy = False
time.sleep(self.delay)
if exception is not None:
return False
Now use it in a with
block anywhere in the code:
with Spinner():
# ... some long-running operations
# time.sleep(3)
A nice pythonic way is to use itertools.cycle:
import itertools, sys
spinner = itertools.cycle(['-', '/', '|', '\\'])
while True:
sys.stdout.write(next(spinner)) # write the next character
sys.stdout.flush() # flush stdout buffer (actual character display)
sys.stdout.write('\b') # erase the last written char
Also, you might want to use threading to display the spinner during a long function call, as in http://www.interclasse.com/scripts/spin.php
A solution:
import sys
import time
print "processing...\\",
syms = ['\\', '|', '/', '-']
bs = '\b'
for _ in range(10):
for sym in syms:
sys.stdout.write("\b%s" % sym)
sys.stdout.flush()
time.sleep(.5)
The key is to use the backspace character '\b' and flush stdout.