PYTHON(1)

📦
version 3.13.16 · 3 versions
, in epel 10, epel 9, fedora 43, fedora 44, nixos 26.05

PYTHON(1) 💅

General Commands Manual — yep bestie, you're reading the python man page ✨

✨ NAME ✨

python — an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language 🐍💖

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

python [ -B ] [ -b ] [ -d ] [ -E ] [ -h ] [ -i ] [ -I ]
       [ -m module-name ] [ -q ] [ -R ] [ -O ] [ -OO ] [ -P ] [ -s ] [ -S ] [ -u ]
       [ -v ] [ -V ] [ -W argument ] [ -x ] [ -X option ] [ -?  ]
       [ --check-hash-based-pycs default | always | never ]
       [ --help ] [ --help-env ] [ --help-xoptions ] [ --help-all ]
       [ -c command | script | - ] [ arguments ]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Okay so Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language, and the way it combines remarkable power with very clear syntax?? genuinely iconic, no notes 💅✨

Want an intro to programming in Python? Go read the Python Tutorial 📖 The Python Library Reference is where all the built-in and standard types, constants, functions and modules get documented. And finally, the Python Reference Manual describes the syntax and semantics of the core language in (perhaps too) much detail 😭 — literally, it does not hold back.

These documents may be located via the INTERNET RESOURCES below 👀 and they may be installed on your system as well, so check around, bestie 🫶

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 applications — see the internal documentation for hints 🧚

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

…and there's more, bestie — keep reading 💖

✨ COMMAND LINE OPTIONS ✨

okay bestie, this is the main character section. every flag below is a little switch you can flip when you run Python, and yes, you need to know all of them because iykyk. let's go 💅

  • -B — don't write .pyc files on import. see also PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE. no cap, this is the "keep my folders clean" vibe. ✨
  • -b — issue warnings about str(bytes_instance), str(bytearray_instance) and comparing bytes/bytearray with str. (-bb: issue errors) 🚨
  • -c command — specify the command to execute (see next section). this terminates the option list — following options are passed as arguments to the command. periodt. 💅
  • --check-hash-based-pycs mode — configure how Python evaluates the up-to-dateness of hash-based .pyc files. 🎀
  • -d — turn on parser debugging output (for expert only, depending on compilation options). lowkey not for the faint of heart. 💀
  • -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. the classic "help me bestie" move. 🫶
  • --help-env — prints help about Python-specific environment variables and exits. 🌸
  • --help-xoptions — prints help about implementation-specific -X options and exits. ✨
  • --help-all — prints complete usage information and exits. the whole encyclopedia, no cap. 📚
  • -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. it's giving detective mode. 🔍
  • -I — run Python in isolated mode. this also implies -E, -P and -s. in isolated mode sys.path contains neither the script's directory nor the user's site-packages directory. all PYTHON* environment variables are ignored, too. further restrictions may be imposed to prevent the user from injecting malicious code. 🛡️
  • -m module-name — searches sys.path for the named module and runs the corresponding .py file as a script. this terminates the option list — following options are passed as arguments to the module. 💅
  • -O — remove assert statements and any code conditional on the value of __debug__; augment the filename for compiled (bytecode) files by adding .opt-1 before the .pyc extension. optimizing era. ✨
  • -OO — do -O and also discard docstrings; change the filename for compiled (bytecode) files by adding .opt-2 before the .pyc extension. double optimized, double iconic. 👑
  • -P — don't automatically prepend a potentially unsafe path to sys.path such as the current directory, the script's directory or an empty string. see also the PYTHONSAFEPATH environment variable. safety first, bestie. 🛡️
  • -q — do not print the version and copyright messages. these messages are also suppressed in non-interactive mode. quiet luxury. 🤫
  • -R — turn on hash randomization. this option only has an effect if the PYTHONHASHSEED environment variable is set to 0, since hash randomization is enabled by default. 🔥
  • -s — don't add user site directory to sys.path. simple, clean. 🧼
  • -S — disable the import of the module site and the site-dependent manipulations of sys.path that it entails. also disable these manipulations if site is explicitly imported later. 🚫
  • -u — force the stdout and stderr streams to be unbuffered. this option has no effect on the stdin stream. unbuffered and unbothered. 💅
  • -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. verbose main character energy. 🗣️
  • -V, --version — prints the Python version number of the executable and exits. when given twice, print more information about the build. 💖
  • -W argument — warning control. Python's warning machinery by default prints warning messages to sys.stderr.

the simplest settings apply a particular action unconditionally to all warnings emitted by a process (even those that are otherwise ignored by default):

-Wdefault  # Warn once per call location
-Werror    # Convert to exceptions
-Walways   # Warn every time
-Wall      # Same as -Walways
-Wmodule   # Warn once per calling module
-Wonce     # Warn once per Python process
-Wignore   # Never warn

the action names can be abbreviated as desired and the interpreter will resolve them to the appropriate action name. for example, -Wi is the same as -Wignore .

the full form of argument is:

action:message:category:module:lineno

empty fields match all values; trailing empty fields may be omitted. for example -W ignore::DeprecationWarning ignores all DeprecationWarning warnings.

  • the action field is as explained above but only applies to warnings that match the remaining fields.
  • the message field must match the start of the warning message; this match is case-insensitive.
  • the category field matches the warning category (ex: "DeprecationWarning"). 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 module field matches the (fully-qualified) module name; this match is case-sensitive.
  • the lineno field matches the line number, where zero matches all line numbers and is thus equivalent to an omitted line number.

multiple -W options can be given; when a warning matches more than one option, the action for the last matching option is performed. invalid -W options are ignored (though, a warning message is printed about invalid options when the first warning is issued).

warnings can also be controlled using the PYTHONWARNINGS environment variable and from within a Python program using the warnings module. for example, the warnings.filterwarnings() function can be used to use a regular expression on the warning message. 🚨

  • -X option — set implementation-specific option. the following options are available:
    • -X cpu_count=N — override the return value of os.cpu_count(); -X cpu_count=default cancels overriding; also PYTHON_CPU_COUNT. 🧠
    • -X dev — enable CPython's "development mode", introducing additional runtime checks which are too expensive to be enabled by default. it will not be more verbose than the default if the code is correct: new warnings are only emitted when an issue is detected. effect of the developer mode:
      • add default warning filter, as -W default
      • install debug hooks on memory allocators: see the PyMem_SetupDebugHooks() C function
      • enable the faulthandler module to dump the Python traceback on a crash
      • enable asyncio debug mode
      • set the dev_mode attribute of sys.flags to True
      • io.IOBase destructor logs close() exceptions
    • -X importtime — show how long each import takes. it shows module name, cumulative time (including nested imports) and self time (excluding nested imports). note that its output may be broken in multi-threaded application. typical usage is python3 -X importtime -c 'import asyncio'. ⏱️
    • -X faulthandler — enable faulthandler. 💥
    • -X frozen_modules=[on|off] — whether or not frozen modules should be used. the default is "on" (or "off" if you are running a local build). 🧊
    • -X gil=[0|1] — enable (1) or disable (0) the GIL; also PYTHON_GIL. only available in builds configured with --disable-gil. 🧵
    • -X int_max_str_digits=number — limit the size of int<->str conversions. this helps avoid denial of service attacks when parsing untrusted data. the default is sys.int_info.default_max_str_digits. 0 disables. 🔢
    • -X no_debug_ranges — disable the inclusion of the tables mapping extra location information (end line, start column offset and end column offset) to every instruction in code objects. this is useful when smaller code objects and pyc files are desired as well as suppressing the extra visual location indicators when the interpreter displays tracebacks. 📉
    • -X perf — support the Linux "perf" profiler; also PYTHONPERFSUPPORT=1. 📊
    • -X perf_jit — support the Linux "perf" profiler with DWARF support; also PYTHON_PERF_JIT_SUPPORT=1. 🔥
    • -X presite=MOD — import this module before site; also PYTHON_PRESITE. this only works on debug builds. 🧪
    • -X pycache_prefix=PATH — enable writing .pyc files to a parallel tree rooted at the given directory instead of to the code tree. 🌳
    • -X showrefcount — output the total reference count and number of used memory blocks when the program finishes or after each statement in the interactive interpreter. this only works on debug builds. 🔍
    • -X tracemalloc — start tracing Python memory allocations using the tracemalloc module. by default, only the most recent frame is stored in a traceback of a trace. use -X tracemalloc=NFRAME to start tracing with a traceback limit of NFRAME frames. 🧠
    • -X utf8 — enable UTF-8 mode for operating system interfaces, overriding the default locale-aware mode. -X utf8=0 explicitly disables UTF-8 mode (even when it would otherwise activate automatically). see PYTHONUTF8 for more details. 🌈
    • -X warn_default_encoding — enable opt-in EncodingWarning for 'encoding=None'. ⚠️
  • -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! 😭

🎀 INTERPRETER INTERFACE 🎀

okay bestie so the interpreter interface is giving very UNIX shell energy. Let's break it down:

  • when it's called with standard input connected to a tty device, it prompts you for commands and runs them until it reads an EOF
  • when it's called with a file name argument or with a file as standard input, it reads and executes a script from that file
  • when it's called with -c command, it executes the Python statement(s) given as command

and heads up, command can contain multiple statements separated by newlines. also — leading whitespace is significant in Python statements! 💅 like, do not come for Python's indentation, it's iconic and it's staying.

in non-interactive mode, the entire input is parsed before it is executed. periodt.

If available, the script name and additional arguments thereafter get passed to the script in the Python variable sys.argv, which is a list of strings (you gotta import sys first to access it, no cap). Details:

  • 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 shows up when a command isn't complete) is .... you can change the prompts by assigning to sys.ps1 or sys.ps2. slay, customizable.

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 exception; 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 conventions, lowkey. ${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. 🦋

✨ ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES ✨

the moment you've all been waiting for, bestie. so many little switches. 🎀

  • PYTHONASYNCIODEBUG — If this environment variable is set to a non-empty string, enable the debug mode of the asyncio module.
  • PYTHON_BASIC_REPL — If this variable is set to any value, the interpreter will not attempt to load the Python-based REPL that requires curses and readline, and will instead use the traditional parser-based REPL.
  • PYTHONBREAKPOINT — If this environment variable is set to 0, it disables the default debugger. It can be set to the callable of your debugger of choice.
  • PYTHONCOERCECLOCALE — If set to the value 0, causes the main Python command line application to skip coercing the legacy ASCII-based C and POSIX locales to a more capable UTF-8 based alternative.
  • PYTHON_COLORS — If this variable is set to 1, the interpreter will colorize various kinds of output. Setting it to 0 deactivates this behavior. 🌈 (iconic tbh)
  • PYTHON_CPU_COUNT — If this variable is set to a positive integer, it overrides the return values of os.cpu_count and os.process_cpu_count.

See also the -X cpu_count option.

  • PYTHONDEBUG — If this is set to a non-empty string it is equivalent to specifying the -d option. If set to an integer, it is equivalent to specifying -d multiple times.
  • PYTHONEXECUTABLE — If this environment variable is set, sys.argv[0] will be set to its value instead of the value got through the C runtime. Only works on Mac OS X.
  • PYTHONFAULTHANDLER — If this environment variable is set to a non-empty string, faulthandler.enable() is called at startup: install a handler for SIGSEGV, SIGFPE, SIGABRT, SIGBUS and SIGILL signals to dump the Python traceback.

This is equivalent to the -X faulthandler option.

  • PYTHON_FROZEN_MODULES — If this variable is set to on or off, it determines whether or not frozen modules are ignored by the import machinery. A value of on means they get imported and off means they are ignored. The default is on for non-debug builds (the normal case) and off for debug builds.

See also the -X frozen_modules option.

  • PYTHON_GIL — If this variable is set to 1, the global interpreter lock (GIL) will be forced on. Setting it to 0 forces the GIL off. Only available in builds configured with --disable-gil.

This is equivalent to the -X gil option.

  • PYTHON_HISTORY — This environment variable can be used to set the location of a history file (on Unix, it is ~/.python_history by default).
  • PYTHONNODEBUGRANGES — If this variable is set, it disables the inclusion of the tables mapping extra location information (end line, start column offset and end column offset) to every instruction in code objects. This is useful when smaller code objects and pyc files are desired as well as suppressing the extra visual location indicators when the interpreter displays tracebacks.
  • PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE — If this is set to a non-empty string it is equivalent to specifying the -B option (don't try to write .pyc files).
  • PYTHONDEVMODE — If this environment variable is set to a non-empty string, enable Python's "development mode", introducing additional runtime checks that are too expensive to be enabled by default.

This is equivalent to the -X dev option.

  • PYTHONHASHSEED — If this variable is set to "random", a random value is used to seed the hashes of str and bytes 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 disable hash randomization.

  • PYTHONHOME — Change the location of the standard Python libraries. By default, the libraries are searched in ${prefix}/lib/python<version> 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 ${prefix}:${exec_prefix}.
  • PYTHONINSPECT — If this is set to a non-empty string it is equivalent to specifying the -i option.
  • PYTHONINTMAXSTRDIGITS — Limit the maximum digit characters in an int value when converting from a string and when converting an int back to a str. A value of 0 disables the limit. Conversions to or from bases 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32 are never limited.

This is equivalent to the -X int_max_str_digits=NUMBER option.

  • PYTHONIOENCODING — If this is set before running the interpreter, it overrides the encoding used for stdin/stdout/stderr, in the syntax encodingname: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´.
  • PYTHONMALLOC — Set the Python memory allocators and/or install debug hooks. The available memory allocators are malloc and pymalloc. The available debug hooks are debug, malloc_debug, and pymalloc_debug.

When Python is compiled in debug mode, the default is pymalloc_debug and the debug hooks are automatically used. Otherwise, the default is pymalloc.

  • PYTHONMALLOCSTATS — If set to a non-empty string, Python will print statistics of the pymalloc memory allocator every time a new pymalloc object arena is created, and on shutdown.

This variable is ignored if the $PYTHONMALLOC environment variable is used to force the malloc(3) allocator of the C library, or if Python is configured without pymalloc support.

  • PYTHONNOUSERSITE — If this is set to a non-empty string it is equivalent to specifying the -s option (Don't add the user site directory to sys.path).
  • PYTHONOPTIMIZE — If this is set to a non-empty string it is equivalent to specifying the -O option. If set to an integer, it is equivalent to specifying -O multiple times.
  • PYTHONPATH — Augments the default search path for module files. The format is the same as the shell's $PATH: one or more directory pathnames separated by colons. Non-existent directories are silently ignored. The default search path is installation dependent, but generally begins with ${prefix}/lib/python<version> (see PYTHONHOME above). The default search path is always appended to $PYTHONPATH. If a script argument is given, the directory 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.
  • PYTHON_PERF_JIT_SUPPORT — If this variable is set to a nonzero value, it enables support for the Linux perf profiler so Python calls can be detected by it using DWARF information. Setting to 0 disables.

See also the -X perf_jit option.

  • PYTHONPERFSUPPORT — If this variable is set to a nonzero value, it enables support for the Linux perf profiler so Python calls can be detected by it. Setting to 0 disables.

See also the -X perf option.

  • PYTHONPLATLIBDIR — Override sys.platlibdir.
  • PYTHONPROFILEIMPORTTIME — If this environment variable is set to a non-empty string, Python will show how long each import takes. This is exactly equivalent to setting -X importtime on the command line. ⏱️

and now, the rest of the env vars, bestie — these are the ones that fine-tune how Python moves. no cap, they're iconic. 💅

  • PYTHONPYCACHEPREFIX — if you set this, Python writes its .pyc files into a mirror directory tree at this path instead of dropping __pycache__ directories all over your source tree. it's literally the same as passing -X pycache_prefix=PATH. periodt. ✨
  • PYTHONSAFEPATH — set this to any non-empty string and Python will not automatically prepend a potentially unsafe path to sys.path — like the current directory, the script's directory, or an empty string. also peep the -P option. safety first, bestie. 🛡️
  • PYTHONSTARTUP — if this is the name of a readable file, the Python commands in that file get executed before the first prompt is displayed in interactive mode. the file runs in the same name space where interactive commands are executed, so any objects you define or import in it can be used without qualification in your interactive session. you can also change the prompts sys.ps1 and sys.ps2 in this file. it's giving custom startup glow-up. 🌸
  • PYTHONTRACEMALLOC — if this environment variable is set to a non-empty string, Python starts tracing memory allocations using the tracemalloc module. the value of the variable is the maximum number of frames stored in a traceback of a trace. for example, PYTHONTRACEMALLOC=1 stores only the most recent frame. memory tea, spilled. 🍵
  • PYTHONUNBUFFERED — if set to a non-empty string, it's equivalent to specifying the -u option. unbuffered and unbothered. 💅
  • PYTHONUSERBASE — defines the user base directory, which is used to compute the path of the user site-packages directory and installation paths for python -m pip install --user. your personal install zone, slay. 🏠
  • PYTHONUTF8 — set to 1 to enable the Python "UTF-8 Mode". set to 0 to disable. simple as that. 🌈
  • PYTHONVERBOSE — if set to a non-empty string, it's equivalent to specifying the -v option. if set to an integer, it's equivalent to specifying -v multiple times. chatty Python, activated. 🗣️
  • PYTHONWARNDEFAULTENCODING — if set to a non-empty string, Python issues an EncodingWarning when the locale-specific default encoding is used. warning you before things get weird. ⚠️
  • PYTHONWARNINGS — if set to a comma-separated string, it's equivalent to specifying the -W option for each separate value. warning spam, but make it organized. 📢

🐛 Debug-mode variables 🐛

Setting these variables only has an effect in a debug build of Python, that is, if Python was configured with the --with-pydebug build option. so unless you're in debug mode, these are just cute decorations. 💀

  • PYTHONDUMPREFS — if this environment variable is set, Python will dump objects and reference counts still alive after shutting down the interpreter. ghost objects, exposed. 👻
  • PYTHONDUMPREFSFILE — if set, Python will dump objects and reference counts still alive after shutting down the interpreter into a file under the path given as the value to this environment variable. now with file output. 📁
  • PYTHON_PRESITE — if this variable is set to a module, that module will be imported early in the interpreter lifecycle, before the site module is executed, and before the __main__ module is created. this only works on debug builds. it's equivalent to the -X presite=module option. early bird module. 🐦

👑 AUTHOR 👑

The Python Software Foundation: https://www.python.org/psf/ — the literal icons behind Python. bow down. 🫶

🌐 INTERNET RESOURCES 🌐

need more Python in your life? here's where to find the whole squad:

📜 LICENSING 📜

Python is distributed under an Open Source license. See the file "LICENSE" in the Python source distribution for information on terms & conditions for accessing and otherwise using Python and for a DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES. read the fine print, bestie. it matters. 💖

and that's the whole manpage, bestie — this was PYTHON(1) 💅✨ no cap, you're now a Python env var expert. go slay. 🐍👑

📦 where this page comes from