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PYTHON(1)		    General Commands Manual		     PYTHON(1)

NAME
       python  - an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming lan-
       guage

SYNOPSIS
       python [	-B ] [ -d ] [ -E ] [ -h	] [ -i ] [ -m module-name ]
	      [	-O ] [ -OO ] [ -R ] [ -Q argument ] [ -s ] [ -S	] [ -t ] [  -u
       ]
	      [	-v ] [ -V ] [ -W argument ] [ -x ] [ -3	] [ -?	]
	      [	-c command | script | -	] [ arguments ]

DESCRIPTION
       Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming lan-
       guage  that  combines  remarkable power with very clear syntax.	For an
       introduction to programming in Python, see the  Python  Tutorial.   The
       Python  Library	Reference  documents built-in and standard types, con-
       stants, functions and modules.  Finally,	the  Python  Reference	Manual
       describes  the  syntax  and  semantics of the core language in (perhaps
       too) much detail.  (These documents may be located via the INTERNET RE-
       SOURCES below; they may be installed on your system as well.)

       Python's	basic power can	be extended with your own modules written in C
       or C++.	On most	 systems  such	modules	 may  be  dynamically  loaded.
       Python is also adaptable	as an extension	language for existing applica-
       tions.  See the internal	documentation for hints.

       Documentation  for  installed Python modules and	packages can be	viewed
       by running the pydoc program.

COMMAND	LINE OPTIONS
       -B     Don't write .py[co] files	on import. See	also  PYTHONDONTWRITE-
	      BYTECODE.

       -c command
	      Specify  the command to execute (see next	section).  This	termi-
	      nates the	option list (following options are passed as arguments
	      to the command).

       -d     Turn on parser debugging output (for wizards only, depending  on
	      compilation options).

       -E     Ignore environment variables like	PYTHONPATH and PYTHONHOME that
	      modify the behavior of the interpreter.

       -h ,  -?	,  --help
	      Prints the usage for the interpreter executable and exits.

       -i     When  a  script  is passed as first argument or the -c option is
	      used, enter interactive mode after executing the script  or  the
	      command.	It does	not read the $PYTHONSTARTUP file.  This	can be
	      useful  to  inspect  global  variables  or  a stack trace	when a
	      script raises an exception.

       -m module-name
	      Searches sys.path	for the	named module and runs the  correspond-
	      ing .py file as a	script.

       -O     Turn  on	basic optimizations.  This changes the filename	exten-
	      sion for compiled	(bytecode) files from  .pyc  to	 .pyo.	 Given
	      twice, causes docstrings to be discarded.

       -OO    Discard docstrings in addition to	the -O optimizations.

       -R     Turn  on "hash randomization", so	that the hash()	values of str,
	      bytes and	datetime objects are "salted"  with  an	 unpredictable
	      pseudo-random  value.   Although	they remain constant within an
	      individual Python	process, they are not predictable between  re-
	      peated invocations of Python.

	      This  is intended	to provide protection against a	denial of ser-
	      vice caused by carefully-chosen inputs that  exploit  the	 worst
	      case performance of a dict construction, O(n^2) complexity.  See
	      http://www.ocert.org/advisories/ocert-2011-003.html for details.

       -Q argument
	      Division	control;  see  PEP  238.   The argument	must be	one of
	      "old" (the default, int/int  and	long/long  return  an  int  or
	      long), "new" (new	division semantics, i.e. int/int and long/long
	      returns  a float), "warn"	(old division semantics	with a warning
	      for int/int and long/long), or "warnall" (old division semantics
	      with a warning for all use of the	division operator).  For a use
	      of "warnall", see	the Tools/scripts/fixdiv.py script.

       -s     Don't add	user site directory to sys.path.

       -S     Disable the import of the	module site and	the site-dependent ma-
	      nipulations of sys.path that it entails.

       -t     Issue a warning when a source file mixes tabs and	spaces for in-
	      dentation	in a way that makes it depend on the worth  of	a  tab
	      expressed	 in  spaces.   Issue an	error when the option is given
	      twice.

       -u     Force stdin, stdout and stderr to	 be  totally  unbuffered.   On
	      systems  where  it matters, also put stdin, stdout and stderr in
	      binary mode.  Note that there is internal	 buffering  in	xread-
	      lines(),	readlines()  and  file-object  iterators ("for line in
	      sys.stdin") which	is not influenced by  this  option.   To  work
	      around  this, you	will want to use "sys.stdin.readline()"	inside
	      a	"while 1:" loop.

       -v     Print a message each time	a module is initialized,  showing  the
	      place  (filename	or  built-in  module) from which it is loaded.
	      When given twice,	print a	message	for each file that is  checked
	      for  when	 searching for a module.  Also provides	information on
	      module cleanup at	exit.

       -V ,  --version
	      Prints the Python	version	number of the executable and exits.

       -W argument
	      Warning control.	Python sometimes  prints  warning  message  to
	      sys.stderr.   A  typical warning message has the following form:
	      file:line: category:  message.   By  default,  each  warning  is
	      printed  once for	each source line where it occurs.  This	option
	      controls how often warnings are printed.	 Multiple  -W  options
	      may  be  given; when a warning matches more than one option, the
	      action for the last matching option is  performed.   Invalid  -W
	      options  are ignored (a warning message is printed about invalid
	      options when the first warning is	issued).  Warnings can also be
	      controlled from within a Python program using the	warnings  mod-
	      ule.

	      The  simplest  form  of  argument	is one of the following	action
	      strings (or a unique abbreviation): ignore to ignore  all	 warn-
	      ings; default to explicitly request the default behavior (print-
	      ing  each	 warning once per source line);	all to print a warning
	      each time	it occurs (this	may generate many messages if a	 warn-
	      ing  is  triggered  repeatedly for the same source line, such as
	      inside a loop); module to	print each warning only	the first time
	      it occurs	in each	module;	once to	print each  warning  only  the
	      first time it occurs in the program; or error to raise an	excep-
	      tion instead of printing a warning message.

	      The   full  form	of  argument  is  action:message:category:mod-
	      ule:line.	 Here, action is as explained above but	 only  applies
	      to messages that match the remaining fields.  Empty fields match
	      all  values;  trailing empty fields may be omitted.  The message
	      field matches the	start of the  warning  message	printed;  this
	      match is case-insensitive.  The category field matches the warn-
	      ing category.  This must be a class name;	the match test whether
	      the  actual warning category of the message is a subclass	of the
	      specified	warning	category.  The full class name must be	given.
	      The module field matches the (fully-qualified) module name; this
	      match  is	 case-sensitive.  The line field matches the line num-
	      ber, where zero matches all line numbers and is thus  equivalent
	      to an omitted line number.

       -x     Skip  the	 first line of the source.  This is intended for a DOS
	      specific hack only.  Warning: the	line numbers in	error messages
	      will be off by one!

       -3     Warn about Python	3.x incompatibilities that 2to3	 cannot	 triv-
	      ially fix.

INTERPRETER INTERFACE
       The interpreter interface resembles that	of the UNIX shell: when	called
       with  standard input connected to a tty device, it prompts for commands
       and executes them until an EOF is read; when called with	 a  file  name
       argument	 or  with  a  file  as standard	input, it reads	and executes a
       script from that	file; when called with -c  command,  it	 executes  the
       Python  statement(s) given as command.  Here command may	contain	multi-
       ple statements separated	by newlines.  Leading whitespace  is  signifi-
       cant  in	 Python	statements!  In	non-interactive	mode, the entire input
       is parsed before	it is executed.

       If available, the script	name and additional arguments  thereafter  are
       passed  to  the script in the Python variable sys.argv, which is	a list
       of strings (you must first import sys to	be able	to access it).	If  no
       script  name  is	 given,	sys.argv[0] is an empty	string;	if -c is used,
       sys.argv[0] contains the	string '-c'.  Note that	options	interpreted by
       the Python interpreter itself are not placed in sys.argv.

       In interactive mode, the	primary	prompt is  `>>>';  the	second	prompt
       (which  appears	when a command is not complete)	is `...'.  The prompts
       can be changed by assignment to sys.ps1 or  sys.ps2.   The  interpreter
       quits  when  it	reads an EOF at	a prompt.  When	an unhandled exception
       occurs, a stack trace is	printed	and control  returns  to  the  primary
       prompt;	in  non-interactive mode, the interpreter exits	after printing
       the stack trace.	 The interrupt signal raises the KeyboardInterrupt ex-
       ception;	other UNIX signals are not  caught  (except  that  SIGPIPE  is
       sometimes  ignored, in favor of the IOError exception).	Error messages
       are written to stderr.

FILES AND DIRECTORIES
       These are subject to difference depending on local installation conven-
       tions; ${prefix}	 and  ${exec_prefix}  are  installation-dependent  and
       should  be  interpreted as for GNU software; they may be	the same.  The
       default for both	is /usr/local.

       ${exec_prefix}/bin/python
	      Recommended location of the interpreter.

       ${prefix}/lib/python<version>
       ${exec_prefix}/lib/python<version>
	      Recommended locations of the directories containing the standard
	      modules.

       ${prefix}/include/python<version>
       ${exec_prefix}/include/python<version>
	      Recommended locations of the directories containing the  include
	      files  needed for	developing Python extensions and embedding the
	      interpreter.

       ~/.pythonrc.py
	      User-specific initialization file	loaded by the user module; not
	      used by default or by most applications.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       PYTHONHOME
	      Change the location of the standard Python  libraries.   By  de-
	      fault,  the  libraries are searched in ${prefix}/lib/python<ver-
	      sion> and	 ${exec_prefix}/lib/python<version>,  where  ${prefix}
	      and  ${exec_prefix} are installation-dependent directories, both
	      defaulting to /usr/local.	 When $PYTHONHOME is set to  a	single
	      directory, its value replaces both ${prefix} and ${exec_prefix}.
	      To specify different values for these, set $PYTHONHOME to	${pre-
	      fix}:${exec_prefix}.

       PYTHONPATH
	      Augments	the  default search path for module files.  The	format
	      is the same as the shell's $PATH:	one or	more  directory	 path-
	      names   separated	  by  colons.	Non-existent  directories  are
	      silently ignored.	 The default search path is  installation  de-
	      pendent, but generally begins with ${prefix}/lib/python<version>
	      (see  PYTHONHOME	above).	 The default search path is always ap-
	      pended to	$PYTHONPATH.  If a script argument is given,  the  di-
	      rectory  containing  the script is inserted in the path in front
	      of $PYTHONPATH.  The search path can be manipulated from	within
	      a	Python program as the variable sys.path.

       PYTHONSTARTUP
	      If  this	is the name of a readable file,	the Python commands in
	      that file	are executed before the	first prompt is	 displayed  in
	      interactive  mode.   The file is executed	in the same name space
	      where interactive	commands are executed so that objects  defined
	      or  imported  in it can be used without qualification in the in-
	      teractive	session.  You can also change the prompts sys.ps1  and
	      sys.ps2 in this file.

       PYTHONY2K
	      Set  this	 to a non-empty	string to cause	the time module	to re-
	      quire dates specified as strings to include 4-digit years,  oth-
	      erwise  2-digit  years are converted based on rules described in
	      the time module documentation.

       PYTHONOPTIMIZE
	      If this is set to	a non-empty string it is equivalent to	speci-
	      fying  the  -O option. If	set to an integer, it is equivalent to
	      specifying -O multiple times.

       PYTHONDEBUG
	      If this is set to	a non-empty string it is equivalent to	speci-
	      fying  the  -d option. If	set to an integer, it is equivalent to
	      specifying -d multiple times.

       PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE
	      If this is set to	a non-empty string it is equivalent to	speci-
	      fying the	-B option (don't try to	write .py[co] files).

       PYTHONINSPECT
	      If  this is set to a non-empty string it is equivalent to	speci-
	      fying the	-i option.

       PYTHONIOENCODING
	      If this is set before running the	interpreter, it	overrides  the
	      encoding	used  for stdin/stdout/stderr, in the syntax encoding-
	      name:errorhandler	The errorhandler part is optional and has  the
	      same meaning as in str.encode. For stderr, the errorhandler
	       part is ignored;	the handler will always	be 'backslashreplace'.

       PYTHONNOUSERSITE
	      If  this is set to a non-empty string it is equivalent to	speci-
	      fying the	-s option  (Don't  add	the  user  site	 directory  to
	      sys.path).

       PYTHONUNBUFFERED
	      If  this is set to a non-empty string it is equivalent to	speci-
	      fying the	-u option.

       PYTHONVERBOSE
	      If this is set to	a non-empty string it is equivalent to	speci-
	      fying  the  -v option. If	set to an integer, it is equivalent to
	      specifying -v multiple times.

       PYTHONWARNINGS
	      If this is set to	a comma-separated string it is	equivalent  to
	      specifying the -W	option for each	separate value.

       PYTHONHASHSEED
	      If  this	variable is set	to "random", the effect	is the same as
	      specifying the -R	option:	a random value is  used	 to  seed  the
	      hashes of	str, bytes and datetime	objects.

	      If  PYTHONHASHSEED  is  set to an	integer	value, it is used as a
	      fixed seed for generating	the hash() of the types	covered	by the
	      hash randomization.  Its purpose is to allow repeatable hashing,
	      such as for selftests for	the interpreter	itself,	or to allow  a
	      cluster of python	processes to share hash	values.

	      The   integer   must   be	  a   decimal	number	in  the	 range
	      [0,4294967295].  Specifying the value 0 will lead	 to  the  same
	      hash values as when hash randomization is	disabled.

AUTHOR
       The Python Software Foundation: https://www.python.org/psf/

INTERNET RESOURCES
       Main website:  https://www.python.org/
       Documentation:  https://docs.python.org/2/
       Developer resources:  https://docs.python.org/devguide/
       Downloads:  https://www.python.org/downloads/
       Module repository:  https://pypi.python.org/
       Newsgroups:  comp.lang.python, comp.lang.python.announce

LICENSING
       Python  is distributed under an Open Source license.  See the file "LI-
       CENSE" in the Python source distribution	for  information  on  terms  &
       conditions  for	accessing  and	otherwise  using Python	and for	a DIS-
       CLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES.

								     PYTHON(1)

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