32.10. "py_compile" — Compile Python source files
*************************************************

**Source code:** Lib/py_compile.py

======================================================================

The "py_compile" module provides a function to generate a byte-code
file from a source file, and another function used when the module
source file is invoked as a script.

Though not often needed, this function can be useful when installing
modules for shared use, especially if some of the users may not have
permission to write the byte-code cache files in the directory
containing the source code.

exception py_compile.PyCompileError

   Exception raised when an error occurs while attempting to compile
   the file.

py_compile.compile(file[, cfile[, dfile[, doraise]]])

   Compile a source file to byte-code and write out the byte-code
   cache  file.  The source code is loaded from the file named *file*.
   The  byte-code is written to *cfile*, which defaults to *file* "+"
   "'c'" ("'o'" if optimization is enabled in the current
   interpreter).  If *dfile* is specified, it is used as the name of
   the source file in error messages instead of *file*.  If *doraise*
   is true, a "PyCompileError" is raised when an error is encountered
   while compiling *file*. If *doraise* is false (the default), an
   error string is written to "sys.stderr", but no exception is
   raised.

py_compile.main([args])

   Compile several source files.  The files named in *args* (or on the
   command line, if *args* is not specified) are compiled and the
   resulting bytecode is cached in the normal manner.  This function
   does not search a directory structure to locate source files; it
   only compiles files named explicitly. If "'-'" is the only
   parameter in args, the list of files is taken from standard input.

   Changed in version 2.7: Added support for "'-'".

When this module is run as a script, the "main()" is used to compile
all the files named on the command line.  The exit status is nonzero
if one of the files could not be compiled.

Changed in version 2.6: Added the nonzero exit status when module is
run as a script.

See also:

  Module "compileall"
     Utilities to compile all Python source files in a directory tree.