\section{\module{py_compile} ---         Compile Python source files} % Documentation based on module docstrings, by Fred L. Drake, Jr.% <fdrake@acm.org> \declaremodule[pycompile]{standard}{py_compile} \modulesynopsis{Compile Python source files to byte-code files.}  \indexii{file}{byte-code}The \module{py_compile} module provides a function to generate abyte-code file from a source file, and another function used when themodule source file is invoked as a script. Though not often needed, this function can be useful when installingmodules for shared use, especially if some of the users may not havepermission to write the byte-code cache files in the directorycontaining the source code. \begin{excdesc}{PyCompileError}Exception raised when an error occurs while attempting to compile the file.\end{excdesc} \begin{funcdesc}{compile}{file\optional{, cfile\optional{, dfile\optional{, doraise}}}}  Compile a source file to byte-code and write out the byte-code cache   file.  The source code is loaded from the file name \var{file}.  The   byte-code is written to \var{cfile}, which defaults to \var{file}  \code{+} \code{'c'} (\code{'o'} if optimization is enabled in the  current interpreter).  If \var{dfile} is specified, it is used as  the name of the source file in error messages instead of \var{file}.   If \var{doraise} is true, a \exception{PyCompileError} is raised when  an error is encountered while compiling \var{file}. If \var{doraise}  is false (the default), an error string is written to \code{sys.stderr},  but no exception is raised.\end{funcdesc} \begin{funcdesc}{main}{\optional{args}}  Compile several source files.  The files named in \var{args} (or on  the command line, if \var{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.\end{funcdesc} When this module is run as a script, the \function{main()} is used tocompile all the files named on the command line. \begin{seealso}  \seemodule{compileall}{Utilities to compile all Python source files                         in a directory tree.}\end{seealso}