source: trunk/essentials/dev-lang/python/Misc/python.man@ 3397

.TH PYTHON "1" "$Date: 2005-03-21 01:16:03 +1100 (Mon, 21 Mar 2005) $"

./" To view this file while editing, run it through groff:
./"   groff -Tascii -man python.man | less

.SH NAME
python \- an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B python
[
.B \-d
]
[
.B \-E
]
[
.B \-h
]
[
.B \-i
]
[
.B \-m 
.I module-name
]
[
.B \-O
]
.br
       [
.B -Q
.I argument
]
[
.B \-S
]
[
.B \-t
]
[
.B \-u
]
.br
       [
.B \-v
]
[
.B \-V
]
[
.B \-W
.I argument
]
[
.B \-x
]
.br
       [
.B \-c
.I command
|
.I script
|
\-
]
[
.I arguments
]
.SH DESCRIPTION
Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming
language that combines remarkable power with very clear syntax.
For an introduction to programming in Python you are referred to the
Python Tutorial.
The Python Library Reference documents built-in and standard types,
constants, 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
.B "INTERNET RESOURCES"
below; they may be installed on your system as well.)
.PP
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.
.PP
Documentation for installed Python modules and packages can be 
viewed by running the 
.B pydoc
program.  
.SH COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
.TP
.BI "\-c " command
Specify the command to execute (see next section).
This terminates the option list (following options are passed as
arguments to the command).
.TP
.B \-d
Turn on parser debugging output (for wizards only, depending on
compilation options).
.TP
.B \-E
Ignore environment variables like PYTHONPATH and PYTHONHOME that modify
the behavior of the interpreter.
.TP
.B \-h
Prints the usage for the interpreter executable and exits.
.TP
.B \-i
When a script is passed as first argument or the \fB\-c\fP 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.
.TP
.BI "\-m " module-name
Searches 
.I sys.path 
for the named module and runs the corresponding 
.I .py 
file as a script.
.TP
.B \-O
Turn on basic optimizations.  This changes the filename extension for
compiled (bytecode) files from
.I .pyc
to \fI.pyo\fP.  Given twice, causes docstrings to be discarded.
.TP
.BI "\-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.
.TP
.B \-S
Disable the import of the module
.I site
and the site-dependent manipulations of
.I sys.path
that it entails.
.TP
.B \-t
Issue a warning when a source file mixes tabs and spaces for
indentation 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.
.TP
.B \-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 xreadlines(), 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.
.TP
.B \-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.
.TP
.B \-V
Prints the Python version number of the executable and exits.
.TP
.BI "\-W " argument
Warning control.  Python sometimes prints warning message to
.IR sys.stderr .
A typical warning message has the following form:
.IB 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
.B \-W
options may be given; when a warning matches more than one
option, the action for the last matching option is performed.
Invalid
.B \-W
options are ignored (a warning message is printed about invalid