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<H1><A NAME="SECTION0020800000000000000000">
18.8 <tt class="module">py_compile</tt> --
Compile Python source files</A>
</H1>
<P>
<A NAME="module-pycompile"><!--z--></A>
<P>
<P>
<a id='l2h-4705'><!--x--></a>The <tt class="module">py_compile</tt> module provides a function to generate a
byte-code file from a source file, and another function used when the
module source file is invoked as a script.
<P>
Though not often needed, this function can be useful when installing
modules for shared use, especially if some of the users may not have
permission to write the byte-code cache files in the directory
containing the source code.
<P>
<dl><dt><b><span class="typelabel">exception</span> <tt id='l2h-4706' class="exception">PyCompileError</tt></b></dt>
<dd>
Exception raised when an error occurs while attempting to compile the file.
</dd></dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-4707' class="function">compile</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>file</var><big>[</big><var>, cfile</var><big>[</big><var>, dfile</var><big>[</big><var>, doraise</var><big>]</big><big>]</big><big>]</big>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Compile a source file to byte-code and write out the byte-code cache
file. The source code is loaded from the file name <var>file</var>. The
byte-code is written to <var>cfile</var>, which defaults to <var>file</var>
<code>+</code> <code>'c'</code> (<code>'o'</code> if optimization is enabled in the
current interpreter). If <var>dfile</var> is specified, it is used as
the name of the source file in error messages instead of <var>file</var>.
If <var>doraise</var> = True, a PyCompileError is raised when an error is
encountered while compiling <var>file</var>. If <var>doraise</var> = False (the default),
an error string is written to sys.stderr, but no exception is raised.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-4708' class="function">main</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><big>[</big><var>args</var><big>]</big>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Compile several source files. The files named in <var>args</var> (or on
the command line, if <var>args</var> is not specified) are compiled and
the resulting bytecode is cached in the normal manner. This
function does not search a directory structure to locate source
files; it only compiles files named explicitly.
</dl>
<P>
When this module is run as a script, the <tt class="function">main()</tt> is used to
compile all the files named on the command line.
<P>
<div class="seealso">
<p class="heading"><b>See Also:</b></p>
<dl compact class="seemodule">
<dt>Module <b><tt class="module"><a href="module-compileall.html">compileall</a></tt>:</b>
<dd>Utilities to compile all Python source files
in a directory tree.
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<span class="release-info">Release 2.3.4, documentation updated on May 20, 2004.</span>
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