[Python-Dev] .pythonrc.py in man page (original) (raw)

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Perhaps this entry in the man page is obsolete and should be removed?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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