How can I disable generation of pyc and pyo files?

Question

Autotools insists on generating pyo and pyc files when building my project (not when running it) no matter what I do. The problem is that my Python configuration is somewhat strange, and I don't want the Python compiler to run during installation. Is there any way to disable generating these files?

For reference, here are the things I've tried:

Setting py_compile=echo so that automake won't compile Python scripts
Manually defining install-pythonPYTHON in Makefile.am
Setting PYTHONFLAGS=-B
Setting PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE in Makefile.am, configure.ac, etc.
Creating a new automake variable "python2dir" and installing the script using dist_python2_DATA = Script.py

Basically, if a file ends with the .py extension, Automake WILL create pyc and pyo files, no matter what you do.

related: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/154443/how-to-avoid-pyc-files — matth, Jul 07 '15 at 12:01

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 07 '12 at 14:59

2

See the -B option in the documentation.

answered Jun 07 '12 at 14:59

martineau

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I need a way to tell automake to use that option when installing Python scripts to site-packages. – Matt Fichman Jun 07 '12 at 15:03
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Try setting the **PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE** enviroment variable, which is documented [here](http://docs.python.org/using/cmdline.html#environment-variables). – martineau Jun 07 '12 at 15:09
I tried putting this in configure.ac, Makefile.am, etc. Didn't work, probably b/c automake has its own environment variables. This is really an automake/autools problem rather than a Python problem. Thanks for the help anyway. – Matt Fichman Jun 07 '12 at 15:22
@MattFichman: As I understand your problem, autotools generate byte code files *when building your project*. They will probably be using the `compileall` module, so the command line option and environment variable given in this answer are useless to you – they prevent the automatic creation of pyc/pyo files upon *module import*. You might want to clarify your question. – Sven Marnach Jun 07 '12 at 15:27
The automake documentation says "any files listed in noinst_PYTHON will not be compiled" [here](http://www.gnu.org/software/automake/manual/automake.html#Python), so maybe you could put *.py in it. – martineau Jun 07 '12 at 15:44
@martineau: Doing this would also mean that no Python file at all is installed when doing `make install`, which seems hardly useful. – Sven Marnach Jun 07 '12 at 16:09
@Sven Marnach: It only says they won't be _compiled_. – martineau Jun 07 '12 at 16:42
From the [documentation](http://www.gnu.org/software/automake/manual/automake.html): The special prefix `noinst_` indicates that the objects in question should be built but not installed at all. – Sven Marnach Jun 07 '12 at 17:03

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 11 '12 at 05:49

2

Please try again with your last attempt.

dist_python_DATA = foo.py

will treat foo.py as any regular file, distribute it, and install it in $(pythondir). _DATA does not trigger any kind of compilation.

answered Jun 11 '12 at 05:49

adl

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How can I disable generation of pyc and pyo files?

2 Answers2