1. Command line and environment

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1. Command line and environment

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

CPython implementation detail: 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 [-bBdEhiIOqsSuvVWx?] [-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 or 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 (including namespace packages) 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 built-in 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 (while the module file is being located, the first element will be set to "-m"). 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

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 bytes or bytearray with
str or bytes with int.  Issue an error when the
option is given twice (-bb).



-B

If given, Python won’t try to write .pyc 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.



-I

Run Python in isolated mode. This also implies -E 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.

New in version 3.4.




-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.



-q

Don’t display the copyright and version messages even in interactive mode.

New in version 3.2.




-R

Kept for compatibility.  On Python 3.3 and greater, hash randomization is
turned on by default.
On previous versions of Python, this option turns on hash randomization,
so that the __hash__() values of str, bytes and datetime
are “salted” with an unpredictable random value.  Although they remain
constant within an individual Python process, they are not predictable
between repeated invocations of Python.
Hash randomization is intended to provide protection against a
denial-of-service caused by carefully-chosen inputs that exploit the worst
case performance of a dict construction, O(n^2) complexity.  See
http://www.ocert.org/advisories/ocert-2011-003.html for details.
PYTHONHASHSEED allows you to set a fixed value for the hash
seed secret.

New in version 3.2.3.




-s

Don’t add the user site-packages 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.  Also disable these
manipulations if site is explicitly imported later (call
site.main() if you want them to be triggered).



-u

Force the binary layer of the stdout and stderr streams (which is
available as their buffer attribute) to be unbuffered. The text I/O
layer will still be line-buffered if writing to the console, or
block-buffered if redirected to a non-interactive file.
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 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 tests 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
PYTHONWARNINGS




-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.




-X

Reserved for various implementation-specific options.  CPython currently
defines the following possible values:

-X faulthandler to enable faulthandler;
-X showrefcount to enable the output of the total reference count
and memory blocks (only works on debug builds);
-X tracemalloc to 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. See the
tracemalloc.start() for more information.

It also allows to pass arbitrary values and retrieve them through the
sys._xoptions dictionary.

Changed in version 3.2: It is now allowed to pass -X with CPython.


New in version 3.3: The -X faulthandler option.


New in version 3.4: The -X showrefcount and -X tracemalloc options.




1.1.4. Options you shouldn’t use


-J

Reserved for use by Jython.



1.2. Environment variables
These environment variables influence Python’s behavior, they are processed
before the command-line switches other than -E or -I.  It is customary that
command-line switches override environmental variables where there is a
conflict.


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 and the hook sys.__interactivehook__ in this file.



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 and OS X.



PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE
If this is set to a non-empty string, Python won’t try to write .pyc or
.pyo files on the import of source modules.  This is equivalent to
specifying the -B option.



PYTHONHASHSEED
If this variable is not set or set to random, a random value is used
to seed the hashes of str, bytes and datetime 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.

New in version 3.2.3.




PYTHONIOENCODING
If this is set before running the interpreter, it overrides the encoding used
for stdin/stdout/stderr, in the syntax encodingname:errorhandler.  Both
the encodingname and the :errorhandler parts are optional and have
the same meaning as in str.encode().
For stderr, the :errorhandler part is ignored; the handler will always be
'backslashreplace'.

Changed in version 3.4: The encodingname part is now optional.




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

See also
PEP 370 – Per user site-packages directory




PYTHONUSERBASE
Defines the user base directory, which is used to
compute the path of the user site-packages directory
and Distutils installation paths for
python setup.py install --user.

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.



PYTHONWARNINGS
This is equivalent to the -W option. If set to a comma
separated string, it is equivalent to specifying -W multiple
times.



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
-X faulthandler option.

New in version 3.3.




PYTHONTRACEMALLOC
If this environment variable is set to a non-empty string, start tracing
Python 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. See the tracemalloc.start() for more information.

New in version 3.4.




PYTHONASYNCIODEBUG
If this environment variable is set to a non-empty string, enable the
debug mode of the asyncio module.

New in version 3.4.



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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