/Doc/library/py_compile.rst

 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
11The :mod:`py_compile` module provides a function to generate a byte-code file
12from a source file, and another function used when the module source file is
13invoked as a script.
14
15Though not often needed, this function can be useful when installing modules for
16shared use, especially if some of the users may not have permission to write the
17byte-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
44When this module is run as a script, the :func:`main` is used to compile all the
45files named on the command line.  The exit status is nonzero if one of the files
46could 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