This document is for an old version of Python that is no longer supported. You should upgrade and read the Python documentation for the current stable release.

# Python Setup and Usage

This part of the documentation is devoted to general information on the setup of the Python environment on different platforms, the invocation of the interpreter and things that make working with Python easier.

- 1. Command line and environment
  - 1.1. Command line
    - 1.1.1. Interface options
    - 1.1.2. Generic options
    - 1.1.3. Miscellaneous options
    - 1.1.4. Options you shouldn’t use
  - 1.2. Environment variables
    - 1.2.1. Debug-mode variables
- 2. Using Python on Unix platforms
  - 2.1. Getting and installing the latest version of Python
    - 2.1.1. On Linux
    - 2.1.2. On FreeBSD and OpenBSD
    - 2.1.3. On OpenSolaris
  - 2.2. Building Python
  - 2.3. Python-related paths and files
  - 2.4. Miscellaneous
  - 2.5. Editors and IDEs
- 3. Using Python on Windows
  - 3.1. Installing Python
  - 3.2. Alternative bundles
  - 3.3. Configuring Python
    - 3.3.1. Excursus: Setting environment variables
    - 3.3.2. Finding the Python executable
    - 3.3.3. Finding modules
    - 3.3.4. Executing scripts
  - 3.4. Additional modules
    - 3.4.1. PyWin32
    - 3.4.2. Py2exe
    - 3.4.3. WConio
  - 3.5. Compiling Python on Windows
  - 3.6. Other resources
- 4. Using Python on a Macintosh
  - 4.1. Getting and Installing MacPython
    - 4.1.1. How to run a Python script
    - 4.1.2. Running scripts with a GUI
    - 4.1.3. Configuration
  - 4.2. The IDE
  - 4.3. Installing Additional Python Packages
  - 4.4. GUI Programming on the Mac
  - 4.5. Distributing Python Applications on the Mac
  - 4.6. Other Resources