humanfriendly

Human friendly output for text interfaces using Python

humanfriendly Permissive license MIT Abandoned v10.0 released 2021-09-17

Install

humanfriendly on PyPI

pip

pip install humanfriendly

uv

uv add humanfriendly

poetry

poetry add humanfriendly

Package facts

License	MIT (permissive)
Python support	supports the current Python release (>=2.7, !=3.0., !=3.1., !=3.2., !=3.3., !=3.4.*)
Install friction	low — pure-Python wheel
Runtime dependencies	3 — monotonic, pyreadline, pyreadline3
Maintenance	abandoned — 1,791 days since the last release
First released	2013-06-26
Popularity	one of the top 1,000 most-downloaded packages on PyPI (30-day window, as of 2026-08-13)
Known vulnerabilities	none known (OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-13)

Evidence: humanfriendly-10.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl

Development Status :: 6 - MatureEnvironment :: ConsoleFramework :: Sphinx :: ExtensionIntended Audience :: DevelopersIntended Audience :: System AdministratorsLicense :: OSI Approved :: MIT LicenseNatural Language :: EnglishProgramming Language :: PythonProgramming Language :: Python :: 2Programming Language :: Python :: 2.7Programming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3.5Programming Language :: Python :: 3.6Programming Language :: Python :: 3.7Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9Programming Language :: Python :: Implementation :: CPythonProgramming Language :: Python :: Implementation :: PyPyTopic :: CommunicationsTopic :: Scientific/Engineering :: Human Machine InterfacesTopic :: Software DevelopmentTopic :: Software Development :: Libraries :: Python ModulesTopic :: Software Development :: User InterfacesTopic :: System :: ShellsTopic :: System :: System ShellsTopic :: System :: Systems AdministrationTopic :: TerminalsTopic :: Text Processing :: GeneralTopic :: Text Processing :: LinguisticTopic :: Utilities

About humanfriendly

from the package's own PyPI description — quoted content, verbatim

humanfriendly: Human friendly input/output in Python

.. image:: https://github.com/xolox/python-humanfriendly/actions/workflows/test.yml/badge.svg?branch=master :target: https://github.com/xolox/python-humanfriendly/actions

.. image:: https://codecov.io/gh/xolox/python-humanfriendly/branch/master/graph/badge.svg?token=jYaj4T74TU :target: https://codecov.io/gh/xolox/python-humanfriendly

The functions and classes in the humanfriendly package can be used to make text interfaces more user friendly. Some example features:

Parsing and formatting numbers, file sizes, pathnames and timespans in simple, human friendly formats.
Easy to use timers for long running operations, with human friendly formatting of the resulting timespans.
Prompting the user to select a choice from a list of options by typing the option's number or a unique substring of the option.
Terminal interaction including text styling (ANSI escape sequences_), user friendly rendering of usage messages and querying the terminal for its size.

The humanfriendly package is currently tested on Python 2.7, 3.5+ and PyPy (2.7) on Linux...

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AI interpretation — verify before relying

AI-generated interpretation of the package facts above; every digit, version, license, or vulnerability id it cites is grounded in the facts already shown on this page

humanfriendly formats and parses numbers, file sizes, timespans, and terminal text in human-readable forms, plus provides interactive prompts and ANSI styling for command-line interfaces.

Low install friction with a pure-Python wheel, but the package is abandoned—no releases since 2021-09-17 (1791 days ago). Maintenance has stopped, so security patches and compatibility updates are unlikely.

MIT license is permissive; you may use, modify, and distribute this package freely in commercial and private projects with minimal restrictions.

Usage

pip install humanfriendly
from humanfriendly import format_size, parse_size
num_bytes = parse_size("16G")
print(format_size(num_bytes))

Requires Python 2.7 or 3.5+; Windows ANSI support may need colorama package.

Verdict: humanfriendly is a mature, permissively licensed utility for text formatting in CLI applications with no known vulnerabilities, but it is abandoned and has not been maintained since 2021. Use it only if its existing feature set meets your needs and you are comfortable with no future updates.

Needs verification

Whether runtime dependencies (monotonic, pyreadline, pyreadline3) are optional or required for all use cases.
Current compatibility with Python 3.10+ given the package's age and lack of recent testing.

human readable file size formattingterminal text styling ANSIparse format timespan durationcommand line user promptsnumber formatting thousands separator