Doc/lib/libpycompile.tex

   1 \section{\module{py_compile} ---
   2          Compile Python source files}
   3
   4 % Documentation based on module docstrings, by Fred L. Drake, Jr.
   5 % <fdrake@acm.org>
   6
   7 \declaremodule[pycompile]{standard}{py_compile}
   8
   9 \modulesynopsis{Compile Python source files to byte-code files.}
  10
  11
  12 \indexii{file}{byte-code}
  13 The \module{py_compile} module provides a function to generate a
  14 byte-code file from a source file, and another function used when the
  15 module source file is invoked as a script.
  16
  17 Though not often needed, this function can be useful when installing
  18 modules for shared use, especially if some of the users may not have
  19 permission to write the byte-code cache files in the directory
  20 containing the source code.
  21
  22
  23 \begin{funcdesc}{compile}{file\optional{, cfile\optional{, dfile}}}
  24   Compile a source file to byte-code and write out the byte-code cache
  25   file.  The source code is loaded from the file name \var{file}.  The
  26   byte-code is written to \var{cfile}, which defaults to \var{file}
  27   \code{+} \code{'c'} (\code{'o'} if optimization is enabled in the
  28   current interpreter).  If \var{dfile} is specified, it is used as
  29   the name of the source file in error messages instead of \var{file}.
  30 \end{funcdesc}
  31
  32
  33 \begin{funcdesc}{main}{\optional{args}}
  34   Compile several source files.  The files named in \var{args} (or on
  35   the command line, if \var{args} is not specified) are compiled and
  36   the resulting bytecode is cached in the normal manner.  This
  37   function does not search a directory structure to locate source
  38   files; it only compiles files named explicitly.
  39 \end{funcdesc}
  40
  41 When this module is run as a script, the \function{main()} is used to
  42 compile all the files named on the command line.
  43
  44 \begin{seealso}
  45   \seemodule{compileall}{Utilities to compile all Python source files
  46                          in a directory tree.}
  47 \end{seealso}