diff --git a/.login b/.login
index 3b09c4c32480e200ccb3346980088b5e7fe85c26..83ffb9c1b1de221d91ada14507a7a4344eb6f613 100644
--- a/.login
+++ b/.login
@@ -13,6 +13,8 @@ setenv EDITOR `which vi`
 setenv LC_ALL en_US.UTF-8
 setenv LESSCHARSET utf-8
 
+setenv PYTHONSTARTUP ~/.pythonrc
+
 if (-x ~/.login.local) then
   source ~/.login.local
 endif
diff --git a/.pythonrc b/.pythonrc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..7259d67357186bd91a60682901fcd9a30aad065b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.pythonrc
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+# ~/.pythonrc
+# enable syntax completion
+try:
+    import readline
+except ImportError:
+    print("Module readline not available.")
+else:
+    import rlcompleter
+    readline.parse_and_bind("tab: complete")