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classification
Title: Alternate name for __pycache__
Type: enhancement Stage:
Components: Versions: Python 3.2
process
Status: closed Resolution: rejected
Dependencies: Superseder:
Assigned To: barry Nosy List: barry, dmalcolm, eric.araujo, georg.brandl, pitrou, rhettinger
Priority: high Keywords:

Created on 2011-02-08 22:43 by rhettinger, last changed 2022-04-11 14:57 by admin. This issue is now closed.

Messages (6)
msg128194 - (view) Author: Raymond Hettinger (rhettinger) * (Python committer) Date: 2011-02-08 22:43
It would be great if the "__pycache__" name could be set by an environment variable.  I would like to rename it to ".pycache" so that it doesn't pollute my directory listings.
msg128221 - (view) Author: Barry A. Warsaw (barry) * (Python committer) Date: 2011-02-09 16:41
Hmm. That's problematic.  How would that interact with a system Python that is already looking in __pycache__ for its pyc files?  Would it suddenly start ignoring those and wanting to write them to .pycache?

IIRC we thought about something like this during the PEP discussions and Guido nixed it.

-1
msg128222 - (view) Author: Dave Malcolm (dmalcolm) (Python committer) Date: 2011-02-09 16:55
On Wed, 2011-02-09 at 16:41 +0000, Barry A. Warsaw wrote:

> IIRC we thought about something like this during the PEP discussions and Guido nixed it.

FWIW, the closest I could find was this mail:
  http://www.mail-archive.com/python-dev@python.org/msg45203.html
(doesn't seem to be in the mail.python.org archives)
where GvR said:
> Because we don't want to completely hide the pyc files. Also the dot
> naming convention is somewhat platform-specific.

(FWIW, I wish we'd gone for .pycache too, but I guess it's too late to change now)
msg128224 - (view) Author: Antoine Pitrou (pitrou) * (Python committer) Date: 2011-02-09 17:23
I agree with barry's argument and also with Marc-André's argument on python-ideas. Your directories are far cleaner than before with pyc files all around, so what is the problem exactly?
msg128225 - (view) Author: Raymond Hettinger (rhettinger) * (Python committer) Date: 2011-02-09 17:36
That makes sense.  Making it configurable would lose some of the benefits.

What we could do though, before 3.2 goes out, is change the name to ".pycache" to follow the dot-file naming convention and avoid cluttering directory listings.
msg128227 - (view) Author: Raymond Hettinger (rhettinger) * (Python committer) Date: 2011-02-09 17:54
I just saw a post from Guido saying that he doesn't want the directory to be invisible.
History
Date User Action Args
2022-04-11 14:57:12adminsetgithub: 55363
2011-02-09 17:54:52rhettingersetstatus: open -> closed

messages: + msg128227
resolution: rejected
nosy: barry, georg.brandl, rhettinger, pitrou, eric.araujo, dmalcolm
2011-02-09 17:36:34rhettingersetpriority: normal -> high

versions: + Python 3.2, - Python 3.3
messages: + msg128225
nosy: barry, georg.brandl, rhettinger, pitrou, eric.araujo, dmalcolm
2011-02-09 17:23:36pitrousetnosy: + pitrou
messages: + msg128224
2011-02-09 16:55:13dmalcolmsetnosy: + dmalcolm
messages: + msg128222
2011-02-09 16:53:21georg.brandlsetnosy: + georg.brandl
2011-02-09 16:41:10barrysetmessages: + msg128221
2011-02-09 16:33:27eric.araujosetnosy: + eric.araujo
2011-02-08 22:43:55rhettingercreate