From 09827eb55e4c5ceca5af2edd8bf7d129d4ecdf3c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Georg Brandl Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 21:51:48 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] #5276: document IDLESTARTUP and .Idle.py. --- Doc/library/idle.rst | 18 ++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 18 insertions(+) diff --git a/Doc/library/idle.rst b/Doc/library/idle.rst index 413750fda54..1b78fb9bc1b 100644 --- a/Doc/library/idle.rst +++ b/Doc/library/idle.rst @@ -253,6 +253,24 @@ Shell colors: black +Startup +------- + +Upon startup with the ``-s`` option, IDLE will execute the file referenced by +the environment variables :envvar:`IDLESTARTUP` or :envvar:`PYTHONSTARTUP`. +Idle first checks for ``IDLESTARTUP``; if ``IDLESTARTUP`` is present the file +referenced is run. If ``IDLESTARTUP`` is not present, Idle checks for +``PYTHONSTARTUP``. Files referenced by these environment variables are +convenient places to store functions that are used frequently from the Idle +shell, or for executing import statements to import common modules. + +In addition, ``Tk`` also loads a startup file if it is present. Note that the +Tk file is loaded unconditionally. This additional file is ``.Idle.py`` and is +looked for in the user's home directory. Statements in this file will be +executed in the Tk namespace, so this file is not useful for importing functions +to be used from Idle's Python shell. + + Command line usage ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^