How to compile a python file?

Question

I have started learning python and I'm also a new user to Ubuntu. I need to know the ways of compiling the .py files. I have tried with the command

python "hello.py"

What are the other ways of compiling python?

python -m py_compile script.py – Mayur Feb 13 '20 at 07:42 — Mayur, Feb 13 '20 at 07:42

Yamaho · Answer 1 · 2015-07-06T21:02:33.187

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Adding to Bryan's answer, if you simply want to compile a file or a bunch of files from a terminal, the py_compile module can be executed as a script in the following manner:

python -m py_compile fileA.py fileB.py fileC.py ...

edited Jul 06 '15 at 21:02

answered Jul 26 '13 at 14:54

Yamaho

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If you are compiling because you want speed, you can also add the -O flag, like python -O -m py_compile …, which will “turn on basic optimizations”. It mainly strips out assert statements and if __debug__ code, so for most code it has no effect. See man python and “What does Python optimization … do?” for details. – Rory O'Kane Oct 03 '14 at 05:09
That's not compilation, that's transliteration to some other representation of the python language. You still need the python interpreter to run this. In case anyone else thinks "oh that was a surprisingly easy answer!" and then discovers it's not actually producing a compiled binary at all. – Luc Dec 08 '21 at 12:34

score 30 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 27 '13 at 01:06

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Also be aware that you don't need to compile a .py file to run it. Python is an interpreted language, and you can run the scripts directly, either using:

python hello.py

Or make your script executable by adding #!/usr/bin/env python to the top of the script, making the file executable with chmod +x hello.py and then running:

./hello.py

The fact that Python internally compiles your .py script to bytecode .pyc files for performance reasons is an implementation detail, and unless you have a strong reason to do so, let python itself decide when and if to compile.

answered Jul 27 '13 at 01:06

MestreLion

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I'm confused as to why this works. Doesn't the Python interpreter needs to be able to read the script in order to run it? If you give only execute permission (chmod +x), how is the interpreter reading the script? – fabda01 Aug 10 '18 at 17:27
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@yellow01: when you execute a script that contains a "shebang", ie, first line starts with #!/path/to/interpreter, the kernel actually executes whatever is declared there, passing the script path as an argument. In my example, when you run ./hello.py what is actually executed is /usr/bin/env python ./hello.py. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebang_(Unix) – MestreLion Aug 11 '18 at 13:49
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@yellow01 you are right that the interpreter will need reading permissions once started through the process MestreLion describes. However, chmod +x grants execute, and does not touch existing permissions so presumably it's readable in addition to now being executable. – spectras Jun 11 '19 at 14:08

score 17 · Answer 3 · edited Dec 01 '15 at 08:53

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You may also try compileall:

python -m compileall ./

edited Dec 01 '15 at 08:53

Jens Erat

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answered Nov 30 '15 at 16:21

MediaVince

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https://docs.python.org/3/library/compileall.html – myrdd Aug 14 '19 at 13:24

Bryan · Answer 4 · 2013-07-26T15:28:36.473

Check out this link Compile in Python

In the middle of the page, it talks about the py_compile module that can be imported. The syntax is as follows:

import py_compile

py_compile.compile("file.py")

This method of compiling will not execute the module either like running python file.py.

There is also a method that compiles an entire directory tree but I'll let you check out the link to see how that is executed.

Hope this helps.

score 8 · Answer 5 · edited Aug 25 '18 at 02:58

8

You can compile Python scripts to a binary code using various methods, but I have found out that using Nuitka is more efficient.

Nuitka is a Python-to-C++ compiler that supports almost all versions of python.

The command syntax is as easy as

nuitka hello.py

Goto http://nuitka.net/doc/user-manual.html for more information.

edited Aug 25 '18 at 02:58

user258532

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answered Jan 30 '17 at 23:37

ahmadabdulnasir

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More efficient how? Why would anyone want to use it? – muru Jan 31 '17 at 00:02
nuitka is indeed very useful - for example, it allows you to ship Python programs to computers where Python is not installed. But as nuitka compiles Python programs to C++ machine code, you can circumvent that. – user258532 Aug 24 '18 at 13:44

How to compile a python file?

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