There are few other places in Docs where hardcoded value of ~/.python_history is referred to.

$ rg python_history Doc
Doc/tutorial/interactive.rst
28:history into a file named :file:`.python_history` in your user directory.

Doc/library/readline.rst
292:file named :file:`.python_history` from the user's home directory.  The code
300:   histfile = os.path.join(os.path.expanduser("~"), ".python_history")
319:   histfile = os.path.join(os.path.expanduser("~"), ".python_history")

Doc/library/site.rst
135::file:`~/.python_history` as the history save file.  To disable it, delete (or

@tirkarthi The first three cases mention .python_history, not ~/.python_history, no?

The fourth case mentions ~/.python_history in the context of the readline
module, which is not available on Windows. So, I'm not sure if those parts of
the docs need to be modified.

By the way, on Windows, os.path.expanduser("~") returns (for example) 'C:\\Users\\Tim'.

A Python core developer has requested some changes be made to your pull request before we can consider merging it. If you could please address their requests along with any other requests in other reviews from core developers that would be appreciated.

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Could you please reword to explain what the history file actually does? It's non-obvious to users that are not familiar with readline module internals.

I have made the requested changes; please review again.

Thanks for making the requested changes!

@tiran: please review the changes made to this pull request.

Could you please reword to explain what the history file actually does?

Reword what?

Can this be merged? It seems fairly obvious what .python_history means and it'd be quite nice to be able to control where it goes.

Thanks for this!

Please make sure there will be no problem with paths with subdirectories that might not be created. E.g. "export PYTHONHISTORY=$HOME/.cache/python/history please assert that the path will be created if missing.

Any way to help get this through? It looks like it's been ready for a while.

I'd like to see this merged as well; if there's anything I can do, I'd be happy to help.

I would like this feature very much. @tiran and @pablogsal, please review this soon.

What is the holdup for this merge?

Looks like there are conflicts now which need to be resolved, and probably rebased.

Guys, why on earth are you hard-coding a commonly used and often changed file-path like this?

I was sincerely expecting to find an internal built-in variable named something like DEFAULT_HISTORY_FILE, but to my unpleasant surprise, I instead find history = os.path.join(os.path.expanduser('~'),'.python_history').

While at the same time being met with:

readline.write_history_file.__doc__
# 'Save a readline history file. The default filename is ~/.history.'