/Doc/library/index.rst

 1.. _library-index:
 2
 3###############################
 4  The Python Standard Library
 5###############################
 6
 7:Release: |version|
 8:Date: |today|
 9
10While :ref:`reference-index` describes the exact syntax and
11semantics of the Python language, this library reference manual
12describes the standard library that is distributed with Python. It also
13describes some of the optional components that are commonly included
14in Python distributions.
15
16Python's standard library is very extensive, offering a wide range of
17facilities as indicated by the long table of contents listed below. The
18library contains built-in modules (written in C) that provide access to
19system functionality such as file I/O that would otherwise be
20inaccessible to Python programmers, as well as modules written in Python
21that provide standardized solutions for many problems that occur in
22everyday programming. Some of these modules are explicitly designed to
23encourage and enhance the portability of Python programs by abstracting
24away platform-specifics into platform-neutral APIs.
25
26The Python installers for the Windows platform usually includes
27the entire standard library and often also include many additional
28components. For Unix-like operating systems Python is normally provided
29as a collection of packages, so it may be necessary to use the packaging
30tools provided with the operating system to obtain some or all of the
31optional components.
32
33In addition to the standard library, there is a growing collection of
34several thousand components (from individual programs and modules to
35packages and entire application development frameworks), available from
36the `Python Package Index <http://pypi.python.org/pypi>`_.
37
38
39.. toctree::
40   :maxdepth: 2
41   :numbered:
42
43   intro.rst
44   functions.rst
45   constants.rst
46   objects.rst
47   stdtypes.rst
48   exceptions.rst
49
50   strings.rst
51   datatypes.rst
52   numeric.rst
53   filesys.rst
54   persistence.rst
55   archiving.rst
56   fileformats.rst
57   crypto.rst
58   allos.rst
59   someos.rst
60   ipc.rst
61   netdata.rst
62   markup.rst
63   internet.rst
64   mm.rst
65   i18n.rst
66   frameworks.rst
67   tk.rst
68   development.rst
69   debug.rst
70   python.rst
71   custominterp.rst
72   restricted.rst
73   modules.rst
74   language.rst
75   compiler.rst
76   misc.rst
77   windows.rst
78   unix.rst
79   mac.rst
80   macosa.rst
81   sgi.rst
82   sun.rst
83   undoc.rst