PYTHON(1)

💖 PYTHON 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the PYTHON(1) page — user commands edition, she's a whole icon 🎀

---

✨ NAME ✨

pvtkpython — a Parallel Python interpreter with VTK library bindings 🦋

like, it's python but it's got the VTK bindings and it's parallel. main character energy fr fr 💅

---

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

here's the vibe check, the usage line, the whole thing:

usage: python [option] ... [-c cmd | -m mod | file | -] [arg] ...

so, options!! and their corresponding environment variables, because they come in lil pairs like that 🫶 let's go one by one, no skipping, we don't skip here:

• -b — issue warnings when you convert bytes/bytearray to str, and when you compare bytes/bytearray with str or bytes with int. (-bb makes those into actual errors, so be careful okay 😭)
• -B — don't write .pyc files on import; also PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=x ✨
• -c cmd — the program is passed in as a string (and this terminates the option list, so everything after it is on its own 📌)
• -d — turn on parser debugging output (for experts only, and it only works on debug builds); also PYTHONDEBUG=x 🙈
• -E — ignore the PYTHON* environment variables (like PYTHONPATH), she's not listening to them 💀
• -h — print this help message and exit (also -? or --help) 👑
• -i — inspect interactively after running the script; this forces a prompt even if stdin does not appear to be a terminal; also PYTHONINSPECT=x 💜
• -I — isolate Python from the user's environment (this implies -E, -P and -s, so she's fully in her own bubble 🫧)
• -m mod — run a library module as a script (and this terminates the option list, periodt 📌)
• -O — remove assert and __debug__-dependent statements; add .opt-1 before the .pyc extension; also PYTHONOPTIMIZE=x 🔥
• -OO — does all the -O changes and also discards docstrings; add .opt-2 before the .pyc extension 😭 (bestie, your docstrings... gone)
• -P — don't prepend a potentially unsafe path to sys.path; also PYTHONSAFEPATH 🛡️
• -q — don't print version and copyright messages on interactive startup, she's being lowkey 🤫
• -s — don't add the user site directory to sys.path; also PYTHONNOUSERSITE=x 🚫
• -S — don't imply import site on initialization ✋
• -u — force the stdout and stderr streams to be unbuffered; this option has no effect on stdin; also PYTHONUNBUFFERED=x ⚡
• -v — verbose (traces import statements); also PYTHONVERBOSE=x — and you can supply it multiple times to increase verbosity 👀
• -V — print the Python version number and exit (also --version); when you give it twice, it prints more information about the build 🎀
• -W arg — warning control; arg is action:message:category:module:lineno; also PYTHONWARNINGS=arg ⚠️
• -x — skip the first line of source, which allows use of non-Unix forms of #!cmd 🌈
• -X opt — set an implementation-specific option 🧚
• --check-hash-based-pycs always|default|never — control how Python invalidates hash-based .pyc files 💫
• --help-env — print help about Python environment variables and exit 📖
• --help-xoptions — print help about implementation-specific -X options and exit 🔍
• --help-all — print complete help information and exit, the whole encyclopedia bestie 📚

and then the arguments, because they deserve their moment too:

• file — program read from a script file 📄
• - — program read from stdin (this is the default; interactive mode if it's a tty) ⌨️
• arg ... — arguments passed to the program in sys.argv[1:] 🫶

---

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

The full documentation for Python is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and Python programs are properly installed at your site, the command

info Python

should give you access to the complete manual. go read her, she's thorough 📖💖

---

okay that's the whole page bestie, nothing left out, we ate and left no crumbs 💅✨

this was Python 3.13.8, from October 2025, and it's the PYTHON(1) page 🎀 byeee 🦋💜