1 :mod:`py_compile` --- Compile Python source files

     2 =================================================

     3 

     4 .. module:: py_compile

     5    :synopsis: Generate byte-code files from Python source files.

     6 .. sectionauthor:: Fred L. Drake, Jr. <fdrake@acm.org>

     7 .. documentation based on module docstrings

     8 

     9 .. index:: pair: file; byte-code

    10 

    11 The :mod:`py_compile` module provides a function to generate a byte-code file

    12 from a source file, and another function used when the module source file is

    13 invoked as a script.

    14 

    15 Though not often needed, this function can be useful when installing modules for

    16 shared use, especially if some of the users may not have permission to write the

    17 byte-code cache files in the directory containing the source code.

    18 

    19 

    20 .. exception:: PyCompileError

    21 

    22    Exception raised when an error occurs while attempting to compile the file.

    23 

    24 

    25 .. function:: compile(file[, cfile[, dfile[, doraise]]])

    26 

    27    Compile a source file to byte-code and write out the byte-code cache  file.  The

    28    source code is loaded from the file name *file*.  The  byte-code is written to

    29    *cfile*, which defaults to *file* ``+`` ``'c'`` (``'o'`` if optimization is

    30    enabled in the current interpreter).  If *dfile* is specified, it is used as the

    31    name of the source file in error messages instead of *file*.  If *doraise* is

    32    true, a :exc:`PyCompileError` is raised when an error is encountered while

    33    compiling *file*. If *doraise* is false (the default), an error string is

    34    written to ``sys.stderr``, but no exception is raised.

    35 

    36 

    37 .. function:: main([args])

    38 

    39    Compile several source files.  The files named in *args* (or on the command

    40    line, if *args* is not specified) are compiled and the resulting bytecode is

    41    cached in the normal manner.  This function does not search a directory

    42    structure to locate source files; it only compiles files named explicitly.

    43 

    44 When this module is run as a script, the :func:`main` is used to compile all the

    45 files named on the command line.  The exit status is nonzero if one of the files

    46 could not be compiled.

    47 

    48 .. versionchanged:: 2.6

    49    Added the nonzero exit status when module is run as a script.

    50 

    51 

    52 .. seealso::

    53 

    54    Module :mod:`compileall`

    55       Utilities to compile all Python source files in a directory tree.

    56