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# 1. Command line and environment

The CPython interpreter scans the command line and the environment for various settings.

Note

Other implementations’ command line schemes may differ. See Alternate Implementations for further resources.

## 1.1. Command line

When invoking Python, you may specify any of these options:

    python [-bdEiOsStuUvxX?] [-c command | -m module-name | script | - ] [args]

The most common use case is, of course, a simple invocation of a script:

    python myscript.py

### 1.1.1. Interface options

The interpreter interface resembles that of the UNIX shell, but provides some additional methods of invocation:

- When called with standard input connected to a tty device, it prompts for commands and executes them until an EOF (an end-of-file character, you can produce that with Ctrl-D on UNIX or Ctrl-Z, Enter on Windows) 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 a directory name argument, it reads and executes an appropriately named script from that directory.
- When called with `-c command`, it executes the Python statement(s) given as command. Here command may contain multiple statements separated by newlines. Leading whitespace is significant in Python statements!
- When called with `-m module-name`, the given module is located on the Python module path and executed as a script.

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

An interface option terminates the list of options consumed by the interpreter, all consecutive arguments will end up in `sys.argv` – note that the first element, subscript zero (`sys.argv[0]`), is a string reflecting the program’s source.

`-c``<command>`

  Execute the Python code in command. command can be one ore more statements separated by newlines, with significant leading whitespace as in normal module code.

  If this option is given, the first element of `sys.argv` will be `"-c"` and the current directory will be added to the start of `sys.path` (allowing modules in that directory to be imported as top level modules).

`-m``<module-name>`

  Search `sys.path` for the named module and execute its contents as the `__main__` module.

  Since the argument is a module name, you must not give a file extension (`.py`). The `module-name` should be a valid Python module name, but the implementation may not always enforce this (e.g. it may allow you to use a name that includes a hyphen).

  Package names are also permitted. When a package name is supplied instead of a normal module, the interpreter will execute `<pkg>.__main__` as the main module. This behaviour is deliberately similar to the handling of directories and zipfiles that are passed to the interpreter as the script argument.

  Note

  This option cannot be used with builtin modules and extension modules written in C, since they do not have Python module files. However, it can still be used for precompiled modules, even if the original source file is not available.

  If this option is given, the first element of `sys.argv` will be the full path to the module file. As with the -c option, the current directory will be added to the start of `sys.path`.

  Many standard library modules contain code that is invoked on their execution as a script. An example is the `timeit` module:

      python -mtimeit -s 'setup here' 'benchmarked code here'
      python -mtimeit -h # for details

  See also

  `runpy.run_module()` Equivalent functionality directly available to Python code

  PEP 338 – Executing modules as scripts

  Changed in version 3.1: Supply the package name to run a `__main__` submodule.

`-`

  Read commands from standard input (`sys.stdin`). If standard input is a terminal, -i is implied.

  If this option is given, the first element of `sys.argv` will be `"-"` and the current directory will be added to the start of `sys.path`.

`<script>`

  Execute the Python code contained in script, which must be a filesystem path (absolute or relative) referring to either a Python file, a directory containing a `__main__.py` file, or a zipfile containing a `__main__.py` file.

  If this option is given, the first element of `sys.argv` will be the script name as given on the command line.

  If the script name refers directly to a Python file, the directory containing that file is added to the start of `sys.path`, and the file is executed as the `__main__` module.

  If the script name refers to a directory or zipfile, the script name is added to the start of `sys.path` and the `__main__.py` file in that location is executed as the `__main__` module.

If no interface option is given, -i is implied, `sys.argv[0]` is an empty string (`""`) and the current directory will be added to the start of `sys.path`.

See also

Invoking the Interpreter

### 1.1.2. Generic options

`-?`
`-h```
`--help```
  Print a short description of all command line options.

`-V```
`--version```

  Print the Python version number and exit. Example output could be:

      Python 3.0

### 1.1.3. Miscellaneous options

`-b```
  Issue a warning when comparing str and bytes. Issue an error when the option is given twice (-bb).

`-B```
  If given, Python won’t try to write `.pyc` or `.pyo` files on the import of source modules. See also PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE.

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

`-E```
  Ignore all PYTHON* environment variables, e.g. PYTHONPATH and PYTHONHOME, that might be set.

`-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, even when `sys.stdin` does not appear to be a terminal. The PYTHONSTARTUP file is not read.

  This can be useful to inspect global variables or a stack trace when a script raises an exception. See also PYTHONINSPECT.

`-O```
  Turn on basic optimizations. This changes the filename extension for compiled (bytecode) files from `.pyc` to `.pyo`. See also PYTHONOPTIMIZE.

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

`-s```

  Don’t add user site directory to sys.path

  See also

  PEP 370 – Per user site-packages directory

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

`-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 `file.readlines()` and File Objects (`for line in sys.stdin`) which is not influenced by this option. To work around this, you will want to use `file.readline()` inside a `while 1:` loop.

  See also PYTHONUNBUFFERED.

`-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 (-vv), print a message for each file that is checked for when searching for a module. Also provides information on module cleanup at exit. See also PYTHONVERBOSE.

`-W` `arg`

  Warning control. Python’s warning machinery by default prints warning messages 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 (though, 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` module.

  The simplest form of argument is one of the following action strings (or a unique abbreviation):

  `ignore`
    Ignore all warnings.
  `default`
    Explicitly request the default behavior (printing each warning once per source line).
  `all`
    Print a warning each time it occurs (this may generate many messages if a warning is triggered repeatedly for the same source line, such as inside a loop).
  `module`
    Print each warning only only the first time it occurs in each module.
  `once`
    Print each warning only the first time it occurs in the program.
  `error`
    Raise an exception instead of printing a warning message.

  The full form of argument is:

      action:message:category:module: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 warning 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 number, where zero matches all line numbers and is thus equivalent to an omitted line number.

  See also

  `warnings` – the warnings module

  PEP 230 – Warning framework

`-x```

  Skip the first line of the source, allowing use of non-Unix forms of `#!cmd`. This is intended for a DOS specific hack only.

  Note

  The line numbers in error messages will be off by one.

## 1.2. Environment variables

These environment variables influence Python’s behavior.

`PYTHONHOME`

  Change the location of the standard Python libraries. By default, the libraries are searched in `prefix/lib/pythonversion` and `exec_prefix/lib/pythonversion`, 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`.

`PYTHONPATH`

  Augment the default search path for module files. The format is the same as the shell’s PATH: one or more directory pathnames separated by `os.pathsep` (e.g. colons on Unix or semicolons on Windows). Non-existent directories are silently ignored.

  In addition to normal directories, individual PYTHONPATH entries may refer to zipfiles containing pure Python modules (in either source or compiled form). Extension modules cannot be imported from zipfiles.

  The default search path is installation dependent, but generally begins with `prefix/lib/pythonversion` (see PYTHONHOME above). It is always appended to PYTHONPATH.

  An additional directory will be inserted in the search path in front of PYTHONPATH as described above under Interface options. 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 namespace where interactive commands are executed so that objects defined or imported in it can be used without qualification in the interactive 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 require dates specified as strings to include 4-digit years, otherwise 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 specifying 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 specifying the -d option. If set to an integer, it is equivalent to specifying -d multiple times.

`PYTHONINSPECT`

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

  This variable can also be modified by Python code using `os.environ` to force inspect mode on program termination.

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

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

`PYTHONCASEOK`
  If this is set, Python ignores case in `import` statements. This only works on Windows.

`PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE`
  If this is set, Python won’t try to write `.pyc` or `.pyo` files on the import of source modules.

`PYTHONIOENCODING`

  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'`.

`PYTHONNOUSERSITE`

  If this is set, Python won’t add the user site directory to sys.path

  See also

  PEP 370 – Per user site-packages directory

`PYTHONUSERBASE`

  Sets the base directory for the user site directory

  See also

  PEP 370 – Per user site-packages directory

`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.

### 1.2.1. 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.

`PYTHONTHREADDEBUG`
  If set, Python will print threading debug info.

`PYTHONDUMPREFS`
  If set, Python will dump objects and reference counts still alive after shutting down the interpreter.

`PYTHONMALLOCSTATS`
  If set, Python will print memory allocation statistics every time a new object arena is created, and on shutdown.

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