Rewrite multiple lines in the console

On Unix, use the curses module.

On Windows, there are several options:

• PDCurses: http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/
• The HOWTO linked above recommends the Console module
• http://newcenturycomputers.net/projects/wconio.html
• http://docs.activestate.com/activepython/2.6/pywin32/win32console.html

Simple example using curses (I am a total curses n00b):

import curses
import time

def report_progress(filename, progress):
    """progress: 0-10"""
    stdscr.addstr(0, 0, "Moving file: {0}".format(filename))
    stdscr.addstr(1, 0, "Total progress: [{1:10}] {0}%".format(progress * 10, "#" * progress))
    stdscr.refresh()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    stdscr = curses.initscr()
    curses.noecho()
    curses.cbreak()

    try:
        for i in range(10):
            report_progress("file_{0}.txt".format(i), i+1)
            time.sleep(0.5)
    finally:
        curses.echo()
        curses.nocbreak()
        curses.endwin()

Here is a Python module for both Python 2/3, which can simply solve such situation with a few line of code ;D

reprint - A simple module for Python 2/3 to print and refresh multi line output contents in terminal

You can simply treat that output instance as a normal dict or list(depend on which mode you use). When you modify that content in the output instance, the output in terminal will automatically refresh :D

For your need, here is the code:

from reprint import output
import time

if __name__ == "__main__":
    with output(output_type='dict') as output_lines:
        for i in range(10):
            output_lines['Moving file'] = "File_{}".format(i)
            for progress in range(100):
                output_lines['Total Progress'] = "[{done}{padding}] {percent}%".format(
                    done = "#" * int(progress/10),
                    padding = " " * (10 - int(progress/10)),
                    percent = progress
                    )
                time.sleep(0.05)

Ultimately, if you want to manipulate the screen, you need to use the underlying OS libraries, which will typically be:

• curses (or the underlying terminal control codes as tracked by the terminfo/termcap database) on Linux or OSX
• the win32 console API on Windows.

The answer from @codeape already gives you some of the many options if you don't mind sticking to one OS or are happy to install third party libraries on Windows.

However, if you want a cross-platform solution that you can simply pip install, you could use asciimatics. As part of developing this package, I've had to resolve the differences between environments to provide a single API that works on Linux, OSX and Windows.

For progress bars, you could use the BarChart object as shown in this demo using this code.

Like this:

#!/usr/bin/env python

import sys
import time
from collections import deque

queue = deque([], 3)
for t in range(20):
    time.sleep(0.5)
    s = "update %d" % t
    for _ in range(len(queue)):
        sys.stdout.write("\x1b[1A\x1b[2K") # move up cursor and delete whole line
    queue.append(s)
    for i in range(len(queue)):
        sys.stdout.write(queue[i] + "\n") # reprint the lines

I discovered this in the Jiri project, written in Go.

Even better: erase all lines after done:

#!/usr/bin/env python

import sys
import time
from collections import deque

queue = deque([], 3)
t = 0
while True:
    time.sleep(0.5)
    if t <= 20:
        s = "update %d" % t
        t += 1
    else:
        s = None
    for _ in range(len(queue)):
        sys.stdout.write("\x1b[1A\x1b[2K") # move up cursor and delete whole line
    if s != None:
        queue.append(s)
    else:
        queue.popleft()
    if len(queue) == 0:
        break
    for i in range(len(queue)):
        sys.stdout.write(queue[i] + "\n") # reprint the lines