[Python-Dev] .pythonrc.py in man page

The python man page, dated 2005 even in 3.1, has this curious entry: ~/.pythonrc.py User-specific initialization file loaded by the user module; not used by default or by most applications. 1. I couldn't figure out what the user module is. 2. I couldn't figure out what "not used by default or by most applications" meant: what would cause it to get loaded when python starts up? how would an application load it even if the user's environment didn't cause it to get loaded? 3. Why would this file exist if the environment variable PYTHONSTARTUP can specify a file to be loaded at startup? Perhaps this entry in the man page is obsolete and should be removed?