IDLE(1)

🦋 IDLE(1) 🦋

okay so hi bestie 💖 this is the IDLE(1) page, straight outta the General Commands Manual — and yes, we're doing the whole thing, every flag, every example, no skips, no cap.

---

✨ NAME ✨

IDLE — An Integrated DeveLopment Environment for Python 👑

(that's the actual capitalisation in the name, IDLE, the "D" and "L" are just... doing their own thing, we love a stylistic choice 💅)

---

🌸 SYNTAX 🌸

Three whole ways to summon it, here they are, verbatim:

idle [ -dins ] [ -t title ] [ file ...]

idle [ -dins ] [ -t title ] ( -c cmd | -r file ) [ arg ...]

idle [ -dins ] [ -t title ] - [ arg ...]

---

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

So this manual page is a lil brief rundown of the idle command, okay? And plot twist: it was written for Debian, because the original program literally does not ship a manual page. Not one. So if you want the real deep lore, go check IDLE's own help menu 🫶

Now, the vibe: IDLE is an Integrated DeveLopment Environment for Python. It's built on Tkinter, which is Python's bindings to the Tk widget set. And the features? All 100% pure Python, bestie. We're talking multi-windows with multiple undo, Python colorizing, a Python shell window subclass, and a debugger. She's cross-platform too — works on literally every platform where Tk is installed. iconic behavior, honestly 🌈

---

💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -h — print this help message and then dip. bye 👋
• -n — run IDLE without a subprocess. (the details live in Help/IDLE Help, go peek 🧚)

okay so the next little crew will override IDLE's 'settings' configuration:

• -e — open an edit window.
• -i — open a shell window.

and these ones? they imply -i and will open a shell for you:

• -c cmd — run the command in a shell, or
• -r file — run script from file.
• -d — enable the debugger 🐛
• -s — run $IDLESTARTUP or $PYTHONSTARTUP before anything else.
• -t title — set the title of the shell window.

heads up bestie: a default edit window gets bypassed when -c, -r, or - are used. she's not opening that for you, periodt.

and one more for the road: [arg]* and [file]* get passed to the command (-c) or script (-r) in sys.argv[1:]. iykyk 😌

---

⭐ EXAMPLES ⭐

• idle — open an edit window or a shell, depending on IDLE's configuration. dealer's choice ✨
• idle foo.py foobar.py — edit the files, and also open a shell if it's configured to start with a shell.
• idle -est "Baz" foo.py — run $IDLESTARTUP or $PYTHONSTARTUP, edit foo.py, and open a shell window titled "Baz". multi-tasking queen 👑
• idle -c "import sys; print sys.argv" "foo" — open a shell window and run the command, passing "-c" in sys.argv[0] and "foo" in sys.argv[1].
• idle -d -s -r foo.py "Hello World" — open a shell window, run a startup script, enable the debugger, and run foo.py, passing "foo.py" in sys.argv[0] and "Hello World" in sys.argv[1].
• echo "import sys; print sys.argv" | idle - "foobar" — open a shell window, run the script you piped in, passing '' in sys.argv[0] and "foobar" in sys.argv[1].

---

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

python(1).

---

💜 AUTHORS 💜

Various.

---

and that's the whole page, no notes 🫶 mwah 💖

sign-off time: this was the IDLE(1) page, dated 21 September 2004 — yeah she's vintage, she's a classic, we respect the elders 🎀 go forth and debug, bestie 🌸