Contents

• Contents
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Built-in Types, Exceptions and Functions
  • 2.1 Built-in Types
    • 2.1.1 Truth Value Testing
    • 2.1.2 Boolean Operations
    • 2.1.3 Comparisons
    • 2.1.4 Numeric Types
    • 2.1.5 Sequence Types
    • 2.1.6 Mapping Types
    • 2.1.7 Other Built-in Types
    • 2.1.8 Special Attributes
  • 2.2 Built-in Exceptions
  • 2.3 Built-in Functions
• 3. Python Services
  • 3.1 sys -- System-specific parameters and functions.
  • 3.2 types -- Names for all built-in types.
  • 3.3 UserDict -- Class wrapper for dictionary objects.
  • 3.4 UserList -- Class wrapper for list objects.
  • 3.5 operator -- Standard operators as functions.
  • 3.6 traceback -- Print or retrieve a stack traceback.
  • 3.7 pickle -- Python object serialization.
  • 3.8 cPickle -- Alternate implementation of pickle.
  • 3.9 copy_reg -- Register pickle support functions.
  • 3.10 shelve -- Python object persistency.
  • 3.11 copy -- Shallow and deep copy operations.
  • 3.12 marshal -- Python object serialization (with different constraints).
  • 3.13 imp -- Access the implementation of the import statement.
    • 3.13.1 Examples
  • 3.14 parser -- Access parse trees of Python code.
    • 3.14.1 Creating AST Objects
    • 3.14.2 Converting AST Objects
    • 3.14.3 Queries on AST Objects
    • 3.14.4 Exceptions and Error Handling
    • 3.14.5 AST Objects
    • 3.14.6 Examples
  • 3.15 symbol -- Constants representing internal nodes of the parse tree.
  • 3.16 token -- Constants representing terminal nodes of the parse tree.
  • 3.17 keyword -- Test whether a string is a Python keyword.
  • 3.18 code -- Code object services.
  • 3.19 pprint -- Data pretty printer.
    • 3.19.1 PrettyPrinter Objects
  • 3.20 py_compile -- Compile Python source files.
  • 3.21 compileall -- Byte-compile Python libraries.
  • 3.22 dis -- Disassembler.
    • 3.22.1 Python Byte Code Instructions
  • 3.23 site -- A standard way to reference site-specific modules.
  • 3.24 user -- A standard way to reference user-specific modules.
  • 3.25 __builtin__ -- Built-in functions.
  • 3.26 __main__ -- Top-level script environment.
• 4. String Services
  • 4.1 string -- Common string operations.
  • 4.2 re -- New Perl-style regular expression search and match operations.
    • 4.2.1 Regular Expression Syntax
    • 4.2.2 Module Contents
    • 4.2.3 Regular Expression Objects
    • 4.2.4 Match Objects
  • 4.3 regex -- Regular expression search and match operations.
    • 4.3.1 Regular Expressions
    • 4.3.2 Module Contents
  • 4.4 regsub -- Substitution and splitting operations that use regular expressions.
  • 4.5 struct -- Interpret strings as packed binary data.
  • 4.6 StringIO -- Read and write strings as if they were files.
  • 4.7 cStringIO -- Faster version of StringIO, but not subclassable.
• 5. Miscellaneous Services
  • 5.1 math -- Mathematical functions (sin() etc.).
  • 5.2 cmath -- Mathematical functions for complex numbers.
  • 5.3 whrandom -- Floating point pseudo-random number generator.
  • 5.4 random -- Generate pseudo-random numbers with various distributions.
  • 5.5 bisect -- Array bisection algorithms for binary searching.
    • 5.5.1 Example
  • 5.6 array -- Efficient arrays of uniformly typed numeric values.
  • 5.7 fileinput -- Iteration over lines from multiple input streams.
  • 5.8 calendar -- Functions that emulate the Unix cal program.
  • 5.9 cmd -- Build line-oriented command interpreters.
    • 5.9.1 Cmd Objects
• 6. Generic Operating System Services
  • 6.1 os -- Miscellaneous OS interfaces.
  • 6.2 time -- Time access and conversions.
  • 6.3 getopt -- Parser for command line options.
  • 6.4 tempfile -- Generate temporary file names.
  • 6.5 errno -- Standard errno system symbols.
  • 6.6 glob -- Unix shell style pathname pattern expansion.
  • 6.7 fnmatch -- Unix shell style pathname pattern matching.
  • 6.8 locale -- Internationalization services.
    • 6.8.1 Background, details, hints, tips and caveats
    • 6.8.2 For extension writers and programs that embed Python
• 7. Optional Operating System Services
  • 7.1 signal -- Set handlers for asynchronous events.
    • 7.1.1 Example
  • 7.2 socket -- Low-level networking interface.
    • 7.2.1 Socket Objects
    • 7.2.2 Example
  • 7.3 select -- Wait for I/O completion on multiple streams.
  • 7.4 thread -- Multiple threads of control.
  • 7.5 threading -- Higher-level threading interfaces.
    • 7.5.1 Lock Objects
    • 7.5.2 RLock Objects
    • 7.5.3 Condition Objects
    • 7.5.4 Semaphore Objects
    • 7.5.5 Event Objects
    • 7.5.6 Thread Objects
  • 7.6 Queue -- A synchronized queue class.
    • 7.6.1 Queue Objects
  • 7.7 anydbm -- Generic interface to DBM-style database modules.
  • 7.8 dumbdbm -- Portable implementation of the simple DBM interface.
  • 7.9 whichdb -- Guess which DBM-style module created a given database.
  • 7.10 zlib -- Compression and decompression compatible with gzip.
  • 7.11 gzip -- gzip compression and decompression using files.
• 8. Unix Specific Services
  • 8.1 posix -- The most common POSIX system calls.
  • 8.2 posixpath -- Common POSIX pathname manipulations.
  • 8.3 pwd -- The password database.
  • 8.4 grp -- The group database.
  • 8.5 crypt -- The crypt() function used to check Unix passwords.
  • 8.6 dbm -- The standard ``database'' interface, based on ndbm.
  • 8.7 gdbm -- GNU's reinterpretation of dbm.
  • 8.8 termios -- POSIX style tty control.
    • 8.8.1 Example
  • 8.9 TERMIOS -- Constants used with the termios module.
  • 8.10 fcntl -- The fcntl() and ioctl() system calls.
  • 8.11 posixfile -- A file-like object with support for locking.
  • 8.12 resource -- Resource usage information.
    • 8.12.1 Resource Limits
    • 8.12.2 Resource Usage
  • 8.13 syslog -- Unix syslog library routines.
  • 8.14 stat -- Utilities for interpreting stat() results.
  • 8.15 popen2 -- Subprocesses with accessible standard I/O streams.
    • 8.15.1 Popen3 Objects
  • 8.16 commands -- Wrapper functions for os.popen().
• 9. The Python Debugger
  • 9.1 Debugger Commands
  • 9.2 How It Works
• 10. The Python Profiler
  • 10.1 Introduction to the profiler
  • 10.2 How Is This Profiler Different From The Old Profiler?
  • 10.3 Instant Users Manual
  • 10.4 What Is Deterministic Profiling?
  • 10.5 Reference Manual
    • 10.5.1 The Stats Class
  • 10.6 Limitations
  • 10.7 Calibration
  • 10.8 Extensions -- Deriving Better Profilers
    • 10.8.1 OldProfile Class
    • 10.8.2 HotProfile Class
• 11. Internet Protocols and Support
  • 11.1 cgi -- Common Gateway Interface support.
    • 11.1.1 Introduction
    • 11.1.2 Using the cgi module
    • 11.1.3 Old classes
    • 11.1.4 Functions
    • 11.1.5 Caring about security
    • 11.1.6 Installing your CGI script on a Unix system
    • 11.1.7 Testing your CGI script
    • 11.1.8 Debugging CGI scripts
    • 11.1.9 Common problems and solutions
  • 11.2 urllib -- Open an arbitrary object given by URL.
  • 11.3 httplib -- HTTP protocol client.
    • 11.3.1 HTTP Objects
    • 11.3.2 Example
  • 11.4 ftplib -- FTP protocol client.
    • 11.4.1 FTP Objects
  • 11.5 gopherlib -- Gopher protocol client.
  • 11.6 poplib -- POP3 protocol client.
    • 11.6.1 POP3 Objects
    • 11.6.2 POP3 Example
  • 11.7 imaplib -- IMAP4 protocol client.
    • 11.7.1 IMAP4 Objects
    • 11.7.2 IMAP4 Example
  • 11.8 nntplib -- NNTP protocol client.
    • 11.8.1 NNTP Objects
  • 11.9 smtplib -- SMTP protocol client.
    • 11.9.1 SMTP Objects
    • 11.9.2 SMTP Example
  • 11.10 urlparse -- Parse URLs into components.
  • 11.11 SocketServer -- A framework for network servers.
  • 11.12 BaseHTTPServer -- Basic HTTP server.
• 12. Internet Data Handling
  • 12.1 sgmllib -- Simple SGML parser.
  • 12.2 htmllib -- A parser for HTML documents.
  • 12.3 xmllib -- A parser for XML documents.
  • 12.4 formatter -- Generic output formatter and device interface.
    • 12.4.1 The Formatter Interface
    • 12.4.2 Formatter Implementations
    • 12.4.3 The Writer Interface
    • 12.4.4 Writer Implementations
  • 12.5 rfc822 -- Parse RFC 822 mail headers.
    • 12.5.1 Message Objects
    • 12.5.2 AddressList Objects
  • 12.6 mimetools -- Tools for parsing MIME style message bodies.
    • 12.6.1 Additional Methods of Message objects
  • 12.7 multifile -- Support for reading files which contain distinct parts.
    • 12.7.1 MultiFile Objects
    • 12.7.2 MultiFile Example
  • 12.8 binhex -- Encode and decode files in binhex4 format.
    • 12.8.1 Notes
  • 12.9 uu -- Encode and decode files in uuencode format.
  • 12.10 binascii -- Convert between binary and various ascii-encoded representations.
  • 12.11 xdrlib -- Encode and decode XDR data.
    • 12.11.1 Packer Objects
    • 12.11.2 Unpacker Objects
    • 12.11.3 Exceptions
  • 12.12 mailcap -- Mailcap file handling.
  • 12.13 mimetypes -- Mapping of filename extensions to MIME types.
  • 12.14 base64 -- Encode and decode MIME base64 encoding.
  • 12.15 quopri -- Encode and decode MIME quoted-printable encoding.
  • 12.16 mailbox -- Read various mailbox formats.
    • 12.16.1 Mailbox Objects
  • 12.17 mimify -- Mimification and unmimification of mail messages.
• 13. Restricted Execution
  • 13.1 rexec -- Basic restricted execution framework.
    • 13.1.1 An example
  • 13.2 Bastion -- Providing restricted access to objects.
• 14. Multimedia Services
  • 14.1 audioop -- Manipulate raw audio data.
  • 14.2 imageop -- Manipulate raw image data.
  • 14.3 aifc -- Read and write audio files in AIFF or AIFC format.
  • 14.4 jpeg -- Read and write image files in compressed JPEG format.
  • 14.5 rgbimg -- Read and write image files in ``SGI RGB'' format.
  • 14.6 imghdr -- Determine the type of image contained in a file or byte stream.
• 15. Cryptographic Services
  • 15.1 md5 -- MD5 message digest algorithm.
  • 15.2 mpz -- GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
  • 15.3 rotor -- Enigma-like encryption and decryption.
• 16. SGI IRIX Specific Services
  • 16.1 al -- Audio functions on the SGI.
    • 16.1.1 Configuration Objects
    • 16.1.2 Port Objects
  • 16.2 AL -- Constants used with the al module.
  • 16.3 cd -- Interface to the CD-ROM on Silicon Graphics systems.
    • 16.3.1 Player Objects
    • 16.3.2 Parser Objects
  • 16.4 fl -- FORMS library interface for GUI applications.
    • 16.4.1 Functions Defined in Module fl
    • 16.4.2 Form Objects
    • 16.4.3 FORMS Objects
  • 16.5 FL -- Constants used with the fl module.
  • 16.6 flp -- Loading functions for stored FORMS designs.
  • 16.7 fm -- Font Manager interface for SGI workstations.
  • 16.8 gl -- Functions from the Silicon Graphics Graphics Library.
  • 16.9 DEVICE -- Constants used with the gl module.
  • 16.10 GL -- Constants used with the gl module.
  • 16.11 imgfile -- Support for SGI imglib files.
• 17. SunOS Specific Services
  • 17.1 sunaudiodev -- Access to Sun audio hardware.
    • 17.1.1 Audio Device Objects
• 18. Undocumented Modules
  • 18.1 Frameworks; somewhat harder to document, but well worth the effort
  • 18.2 Stuff useful to a lot of people, including the CGI crowd
  • 18.3 Miscellaneous useful utilities
  • 18.4 Parsing Python
  • 18.5 Platform specific modules
  • 18.6 Code objects and files, debugger etc.
  • 18.7 Multimedia
  • 18.8 Oddities
  • 18.9 Obsolete
  • 18.10 Extension modules
• Module Index
• Index