[Python-Dev] PEP 3147: PYC Repository Directories (original) (raw)

Barry Warsaw barry at python.org
Sun Feb 7 19:44:27 CET 2010

On Feb 06, 2010, at 04:39 PM, Guido van Rossum wrote:

The conflict is purely that PEP 3147 proposes the new behavior to be optional, and adds a flag (-R) and an environment variable ($PYTHONPYR) to change it. I presume Barry is proposing this out of fear that the new behavior might upset somebody; personally I think it would be better if the behavior weren't optional. At least not in new Python releases

Good to know! Yes, that's one reason why I made it option, the other being that I suspect most people don't care about the original use case (making sure pyc files from different Python versions don't conflict). However, with a folder-per-folder approach, the side benefit of reducing directory clutter by hiding all the pyc files becomes more compelling.

-- in backports such as a distribution that wants this feature might make, it may make sense to be more conservative, or at least to have a way to turn it off.

For backports I think the most conservative approach is to require a flag to enable this behavior. If we make this the default for new versions of Python (something I'd support) then tools written for Python >= 3.2 will know this is just how it's done. I worry about existing deployed tools for Python < 2.7 and 3.1.

How about this: enable it by default in 3.2 and 2.7. No option to disable it. Allow distro back ports to define a flag or environment variable to enable it. The PEP can even be silent about how that's actually done, and a Debian implementation for Python 2.6 or 3.1 could even use the (now documented :) -X flag.

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