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<div class="section" id="module-user">
<h1>28.14. <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">user</span></tt> — User-specific configuration hook<a class="headerlink" href="#module-user" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p class="deprecated">
<span class="versionmodified">Deprecated since version 2.6: </span>The <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">user</span></tt> module has been removed in Python 3.0.</p>
<p id="index-720">As a policy, Python doesn’t run user-specified code on startup of Python
programs. (Only interactive sessions execute the script specified in the
<span class="target" id="index-721"></span><a class="reference external" href="../using/cmdline.html#envvar-PYTHONSTARTUP"><strong class="xref">PYTHONSTARTUP</strong></a> environment variable if it exists).</p>
<p>However, some programs or sites may find it convenient to allow users to have a
standard customization file, which gets run when a program requests it. This
module implements such a mechanism. A program that wishes to use the mechanism
must execute the statement</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">user</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p id="index-722">The <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">user</span></tt> module looks for a file <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.pythonrc.py</span></tt> in the user’s home
directory and if it can be opened, executes it (using <a title="execfile" class="reference external" href="functions.html#execfile"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">execfile()</span></tt></a>) in its
own (the module <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">user</span></tt>‘s) global namespace. Errors during this phase are
not caught; that’s up to the program that imports the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">user</span></tt> module, if it
wishes. The home directory is assumed to be named by the <span class="target" id="index-723"></span><strong class="xref">HOME</strong>
environment variable; if this is not set, the current directory is used.</p>
<p>The user’s <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.pythonrc.py</span></tt> could conceivably test for <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.version</span></tt> if it
wishes to do different things depending on the Python version.</p>
<p>A warning to users: be very conservative in what you place in your
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.pythonrc.py</span></tt> file. Since you don’t know which programs will use it,
changing the behavior of standard modules or functions is generally not a good
idea.</p>
<p>A suggestion for programmers who wish to use this mechanism: a simple way to let
users specify options for your package is to have them define variables in their
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.pythonrc.py</span></tt> file that you test in your module. For example, a module
<tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">spam</span></tt> that has a verbosity level can look for a variable
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">user.spam_verbose</span></tt>, as follows:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">user</span>
<span class="n">verbose</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="nb">bool</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">getattr</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">user</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">"spam_verbose"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">))</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>(The three-argument form of <a title="getattr" class="reference external" href="functions.html#getattr"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">getattr()</span></tt></a> is used in case the user has not
defined <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">spam_verbose</span></tt> in their <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.pythonrc.py</span></tt> file.)</p>
<p>Programs with extensive customization needs are better off reading a
program-specific customization file.</p>
<p>Programs with security or privacy concerns should <em>not</em> import this module; a
user can easily break into a program by placing arbitrary code in the
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.pythonrc.py</span></tt> file.</p>
<p>Modules for general use should <em>not</em> import this module; it may interfere with
the operation of the importing program.</p>
<div class="admonition-see-also admonition seealso">
<p class="first admonition-title">See also</p>
<dl class="last docutils">
<dt>Module <a title="A standard way to reference site-specific modules." class="reference external" href="site.html#module-site"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">site</span></tt></a></dt>
<dd>Site-wide customization mechanism.</dd>
</dl>
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