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authorGeorg Brandl <georg@python.org>2010-02-06 10:23:16 (GMT)
committerGeorg Brandl <georg@python.org>2010-02-06 10:23:16 (GMT)
commitb79dc307ad9ccf963286a785202b97035f121dec (patch)
treeeb0a9d2287cb2ecb94e104a28c5c75c1abbd66e2
parent1c7c7304a3ea74e3d1fa187b62dd99d2361bd603 (diff)
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Review sysconfig docs.
-rw-r--r--Doc/library/sysconfig.rst160
1 files changed, 80 insertions, 80 deletions
diff --git a/Doc/library/sysconfig.rst b/Doc/library/sysconfig.rst
index 90bc2dba..63a537f 100644
--- a/Doc/library/sysconfig.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/sysconfig.rst
@@ -10,96 +10,98 @@
single: configuration information
The :mod:`sysconfig` module provides access to Python's configuration
-information like the list of installation paths and the configuration
-variables relevant for the current platform.
+information like the list of installation paths and the configuration variables
+relevant for the current platform.
Configuration variables
-----------------------
A Python distribution contains a :file:`Makefile` file and a :file:`python.h`
-that are used to build the Python binary itself, but also any C extension
+that are necessary to build the Python binary itself, but also any C extension
created in a third party project and compiled using :mod:`distutils`.
-:mod:`sysconfig` put all variables found in these files in a dictionnary
-that can be accessed using :func:`get_config_vars` or :func:`get_config_var`.
+:mod:`sysconfig` puts all variables found in these files in a dictionary that
+can be accessed using :func:`get_config_vars` or :func:`get_config_var`.
Notice that on Windows, it's a much smaller set.
.. function:: get_config_vars(\*args)
- With no arguments, return a dictionary of all configuration
- variables relevant for the current platform.
+ With no arguments, return a dictionary of all configuration variables
+ relevant for the current platform.
- With arguments, return a list of values that result from looking up
- each argument in the configuration variable dictionary.
+ With arguments, return a list of values that result from looking up each
+ argument in the configuration variable dictionary.
+
+ For each argument, if the value is not found, return ``None``.
- For each argument, if the value is not found, returns None.
.. function:: get_config_var(name)
Return the value of a single variable *name*. Equivalent to
- get_config_vars().get(name).
+ ``get_config_vars().get(name)``.
- If *name* is not found, return None.
+ If *name* is not found, return ``None``.
Example of usage::
- >>> import sysconfig
- >>> sysconfig.get_config_var('Py_ENABLE_SHARED')
- 0
- >>> sysconfig.get_config_var('LIBDIR')
- '/usr/local/lib'
- >>> sysconfig.get_config_vars('AR', 'CXX')
- ['ar', 'g++']
+ >>> import sysconfig
+ >>> sysconfig.get_config_var('Py_ENABLE_SHARED')
+ 0
+ >>> sysconfig.get_config_var('LIBDIR')
+ '/usr/local/lib'
+ >>> sysconfig.get_config_vars('AR', 'CXX')
+ ['ar', 'g++']
Installation paths
------------------
-Python uses an installation scheme that differs depending on the platform
-and on the installation options. These schemes are stored in :mod:`sysconfig`
-under unique identifiers based on the value returned by :const:`os.name`.
+Python uses an installation scheme that differs depending on the platform and on
+the installation options. These schemes are stored in :mod:`sysconfig` under
+unique identifiers based on the value returned by :const:`os.name`.
Every new component that is installed using :mod:`distutils` or a
-Distutils-based system will follow the same scheme to copy its file in the
-right places.
+Distutils-based system will follow the same scheme to copy its file in the right
+places.
Python currently supports seven schemes:
-- *posix_prefix*: scheme for posix platforms like Linux or Mac OS X. This is the
- default scheme used when Python or a component is installed.
-- *posix_home*: scheme for posix platform used when a *home* option is used
- upon installation. This scheme is used when a component is installed through
+- *posix_prefix*: scheme for Posix platforms like Linux or Mac OS X. This is
+ the default scheme used when Python or a component is installed.
+- *posix_home*: scheme for Posix platforms used when a *home* option is used
+ upon installation. This scheme is used when a component is installed through
Distutils with a specific home prefix.
-- *posix_user*: scheme for posix platform used when a component is installed
- through Distutils and the *user* option is used. This scheme defines paths
+- *posix_user*: scheme for Posix platforms used when a component is installed
+ through Distutils and the *user* option is used. This scheme defines paths
located under the user home directory.
-- *nt*: scheme for nt platforms like Windows.
-- *nt_user*: scheme for nt platforms, when the *user* option is used.
-- *os2*: scheme for OS2 platforms.
-- *os2_home*: scheme for OS2 patforms, when the *user* option is used.
+- *nt*: scheme for NT platforms like Windows.
+- *nt_user*: scheme for NT platforms, when the *user* option is used.
+- *os2*: scheme for OS/2 platforms.
+- *os2_home*: scheme for OS/2 patforms, when the *user* option is used.
Each scheme is itself composed of a series of paths and each path has a unique
-identifier. Python currently uses eight paths:
+identifier. Python currently uses eight paths:
-- *stdlib*: directory containing the standard Python library files that are
- not platform-specific.
-- *platstdlib*: directory containing the standard Python library files that
- are platform-specific files.
-- *platlib*: directory for the site-specific, platform-specific files.
-- *purelib*: directory for the site-specific, non platform-specific files.
-- *include*: directory containing the non-platform-specific header files.
-- *platinclude*: directory containing the platform-specific header files.
-- *scripts*: directory containing the script files.
-- *data*: directory containing the data files.
+- *stdlib*: directory containing the standard Python library files that are not
+ platform-specific.
+- *platstdlib*: directory containing the standard Python library files that are
+ platform-specific.
+- *platlib*: directory for site-specific, platform-specific files.
+- *purelib*: directory for site-specific, non-platform-specific files.
+- *include*: directory for non-platform-specific header files.
+- *platinclude*: directory for platform-specific header files.
+- *scripts*: directory for script files.
+- *data*: directory for data files.
-:mod:`sysconfig` provides some functions to read these paths.
+:mod:`sysconfig` provides some functions to determine these paths.
.. function:: get_scheme_names()
Return a tuple containing all schemes currently supported in
:mod:`sysconfig`.
+
.. function:: get_path_names()
Return a tuple containing all path names currently supported in
@@ -113,37 +115,37 @@ identifier. Python currently uses eight paths:
*name* has to be a value from the list returned by :func:`get_path_names`.
- :mod:`sysconfig` stores installation paths corresponding to the each
- path name, for each platform, with variables to be expanded. For instance
- the `stdlib` path for the `nt` scheme is: `{base}/Lib`.
+ :mod:`sysconfig` stores installation paths corresponding to each path name,
+ for each platform, with variables to be expanded. For instance the *stdlib*
+ path for the *nt* scheme is: ``{base}/Lib``.
:func:`get_path` will use the variables returned by :func:`get_config_vars`
- to expand the path. All variables have default values for each platform
- so one may call this function and get the default value.
+ to expand the path. All variables have default values for each platform so
+ one may call this function and get the default value.
If *scheme* is provided, it must be a value from the list returned by
- :func:`get_path_names`. Otherwise, the default scheme for the current
+ :func:`get_path_names`. Otherwise, the default scheme for the current
platform is used.
- If *vars* is provided, it must be a dictionnary of variables that will
- update the dictionnary return by :func:`get_config_vars`.
+ If *vars* is provided, it must be a dictionary of variables that will update
+ the dictionary return by :func:`get_config_vars`.
- If *expand* is set to False, the path will not be expanded using
- the variables.
+ If *expand* is set to ``False``, the path will not be expanded using the
+ variables.
- If *name* is not found, return None.
+ If *name* is not found, return ``None``.
.. function:: get_paths([scheme, [vars, [expand]]])
- Return a dictionnary containing all installation paths corresponding to an
+ Return a dictionary containing all installation paths corresponding to an
installation scheme. See :func:`get_path` for more information.
If *scheme* is not provided, will use the default scheme for the current
platform.
- If *vars* is provided, it must be a dictionnary of variables that will
- update the dictionnary used to expand the paths.
+ If *vars* is provided, it must be a dictionary of variables that will
+ update the dictionary used to expand the paths.
If *expand* is set to False, the paths will not be expanded.
@@ -156,20 +158,20 @@ Other functions
.. function:: get_python_version()
- Return the MAJOR.MINOR Python version number as a string. Similar to
+ Return the ``MAJOR.MINOR`` Python version number as a string. Similar to
``sys.version[:3]``.
+
.. function:: get_platform()
Return a string that identifies the current platform.
This is used mainly to distinguish platform-specific build directories and
- platform-specific built distributions. Typically includes the OS name
- and version and the architecture (as supplied by 'os.uname()'),
- although the exact information included depends on the OS; eg. for IRIX
- the architecture isn't particularly important (IRIX only runs on SGI
- hardware), but for Linux the kernel version isn't particularly
- important.
+ platform-specific built distributions. Typically includes the OS name and
+ version and the architecture (as supplied by :func:`os.uname`), although the
+ exact information included depends on the OS; e.g. for IRIX the architecture
+ isn't particularly important (IRIX only runs on SGI hardware), but for Linux
+ the kernel version isn't particularly important.
Examples of returned values:
@@ -185,34 +187,32 @@ Other functions
- win-ia64 (64bit Windows on Itanium)
- win32 (all others - specifically, sys.platform is returned)
- Mac OS X can return :
+ Mac OS X can return:
- macosx-10.6-ppc
- macosx-10.4-ppc64
- macosx-10.3-i386
- macosx-10.4-fat
- For other non-POSIX platforms, currently just returns 'sys.platform'.
+ For other non-POSIX platforms, currently just returns :data:`sys.platform`.
-.. function:: is_python_build():
+.. function:: is_python_build()
- Returns True if the current Python installation was built from source.
+ Return ``True`` if the current Python installation was built from source.
-.. function:: parse_config_h(fp[, vars]):
+.. function:: parse_config_h(fp[, vars])
- Parse a config.h-style file.
+ Parse a :file:`config.h`\-style file.
- *fp* is a file-like object pointing to the config.h-like file.
+ *fp* is a file-like object pointing to the :file:`config.h`\-like file.
A dictionary containing name/value pairs is returned. If an optional
- dictionary is passed in as the second argument, it is used instead of a
- new dictionary, and updated with the values read in the file.
-
-
-.. function:: get_config_h_filename():
+ dictionary is passed in as the second argument, it is used instead of a new
+ dictionary, and updated with the values read in the file.
- Returns the path of pyconfig.h
+.. function:: get_config_h_filename()
+ Return the path of :file:`pyconfig.h`.