[Python-Dev] .pythonrc.py in man page
Guido van Rossum
guido at python.org
Mon Feb 23 03:25:46 CET 2009
On Sun, Feb 22, 2009 at 5:58 PM, Mitchell L Model <MLMLists at comcast.net> wrote:
> 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.
user.py.
> 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?
The docstring in user.py explains this.
> 3. Why would this file exist if the environment variable PYTHONSTARTUP can
> specify a file to be loaded at startup?
PYTHONSTARTUP is only used in interactive sessions.
> Perhaps this entry in the man page is obsolete and should be removed?
Not at all.
--
--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)
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