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 \begin{excdesc}{PyCompileError}
  23 Exception raised when an error occurs while attempting to compile the file.
  24 \end{excdesc}
  25
  26 \begin{funcdesc}{compile}{file\optional{, cfile\optional{, dfile\optional{, doraise}}}}
  27   Compile a source file to byte-code and write out the byte-code cache
  28   file.  The source code is loaded from the file name \var{file}.  The
  29   byte-code is written to \var{cfile}, which defaults to \var{file}
  30   \code{+} \code{'c'} (\code{'o'} if optimization is enabled in the
  31   current interpreter).  If \var{dfile} is specified, it is used as
  32   the name of the source file in error messages instead of \var{file}.
  33   If \var{doraise} = True, a PyCompileError is raised when an error is
  34   encountered while compiling \var{file}. If \var{doraise} = False (the default),
  35   an error string is written to sys.stderr, but no exception is raised.
  36 \end{funcdesc}
  37
  38 \begin{funcdesc}{main}{\optional{args}}
  39   Compile several source files.  The files named in \var{args} (or on
  40   the command line, if \var{args} is not specified) are compiled and
  41   the resulting bytecode is cached in the normal manner.  This
  42   function does not search a directory structure to locate source
  43   files; it only compiles files named explicitly.
  44 \end{funcdesc}
  45
  46 When this module is run as a script, the \function{main()} is used to
  47 compile all the files named on the command line.
  48
  49 \begin{seealso}
  50   \seemodule{compileall}{Utilities to compile all Python source files
  51                          in a directory tree.}
  52 \end{seealso}