Ben Finney wrote: > I don't think keeping the cache files in a mass of intertwingled extra > subdirectories is the way to solve that problem. That speaks, rather, to > the need for Python to be able to find the file on behalf of the user > and blow it away on request, so the user doesn't need to go searching. > > Possible interface (with spelling of options chosen hastily):: > > $ python foo.py # Use cached byte code if available. > $ python --force-compile foo.py # Unconditionally compile. > > If removing the byte code file, without running the module, is what's > desired:: > > $ python --delete-cache foo.py # Delete cached byte code. > $ rm $(python --show-cache-file foo.py) # Same as above. > > That should cover just about any common need for the user to know > exactly which byte code file corresponds to a given source file. That, > in turn, frees us to choose a less obtrusive location for the byte code > files than mingled in with the source.
That's nice in theory, but tricky in practice given the intended flexibility of the import system (i.e. we don't want to perpetrate new import features that aren't part of the common importer interface, so any such proposal would need to come complete with suggested extensions to the PEP 302 importer protocol). It's also the case that having to run Python to manage my own filesystem would very annoying. If a dev has a broken .pyc that prevents the affected Python build from even starting how are they meant to use the nonfunctioning interpreter to find and delete the offending file? How is someone meant to find and delete the .pyc files if they prefer to use a graphical file manager over (or in conjunction with) the command line? We can provide a utility script in the Python distribution to copy a source tree without the Python cache directories easily enough, which would be far simpler than providing the extra tools to cherry pick compilation or deletion of individual cache files. Cheers, Nick. -- Nick Coghlan | ncogh...@gmail.com | Brisbane, Australia --------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com
