[Python-Dev] #12982: Should -O be required to read .pyo files? (original) (raw)

Ethan Furman ethan at stoneleaf.us
Wed Jun 13 20:41:56 CEST 2012

Toshio Kuratomi wrote:

On Wed, Jun 13, 2012 at 01:58:10PM -0400, R. David Murray wrote:

OK, but you didn't answer the question :). If I understand correctly, everything you said applies to writing the bytecode, not reading it.

So, is there any reason to not use the .pyo file (if that's all that is around) when -O is not specified? The only technical reason I can see why -O should be required for a .pyo file to be used (if it is the only thing around) is if it won't run without the -O switch. Is there any expectation that that will ever be the case? Yes. For instance, if I create a .pyo with -OO it wouldn't have docstrings. Another piece of code can legally import that and try to use the docstring for something. This would fail if only the .pyo was present.

Why should it fail? -OO causes docstring access to return None, just as if a docstring had not been specified in the first place. Any decent code will be checking for an undefined docstring -- after all, they are not rare.

Ethan

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