Home Original page

PYC Files

Fredrik Lundh fredrik at pythonware.com
Thu Dec 19 12:49:24 EST 2002 
"Newt" <newt_e at blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

quick answers:

> Are the .pyc files system independant?

yes, as long as you're using the same Python version.

you cannot use PYC files for e.g. 2.1 with a 2.2 interpreter.

> Can .pyc files be 'uncompiled' back to the original source code?

http://www.crazy-compilers.com/decompyle/

> When releasing software, is it normal to release the .py files, or .pyc
> files?

what kind of software?

to generalize a lot, open source stuff is shipped as PY files, commercial
products might be shipped as PY files, PYC files, or using various kinds of
packagers.

> Lastly, is there such a thing as a runtime environment (like with Visual
> Basic) that can be downloaded, or does the full release need to be
> downloaded?

there's no "standard" runtime environment.  you can create your own,
or rely on one of the standard distributions.

</F>
More information about the Python-list mailing list