#10454: clarify the compileall docs and help messages.
diff --git a/Lib/compileall.py b/Lib/compileall.py
index f9ec486..94d1c9e 100644
--- a/Lib/compileall.py
+++ b/Lib/compileall.py
@@ -27,8 +27,8 @@
dir: the directory to byte-compile
maxlevels: maximum recursion level (default 10)
- ddir: if given, purported directory name (this is the
- directory name that will show up in error messages)
+ ddir: the directory that will be prepended to the path to the
+ file as it is compiled into each byte-code file.
force: if True, force compilation, even if timestamps are up-to-date
quiet: if True, be quiet during compilation
legacy: if True, produce legacy pyc paths instead of PEP 3147 paths
@@ -66,8 +66,8 @@
legacy=False, optimize=-1):
"""Byte-compile file.
fullname: the file to byte-compile
- ddir: if given, purported directory name (this is the
- directory name that will show up in error messages)
+ ddir: if given, the directory name compiled in to the
+ byte-code file.
force: if True, force compilation, even if timestamps are up-to-date
quiet: if True, be quiet during compilation
legacy: if True, produce legacy pyc paths instead of PEP 3147 paths
@@ -163,25 +163,32 @@
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
description='Utilities to support installing Python libraries.')
- parser.add_argument('-l', action='store_const', default=10, const=0,
- dest='maxlevels', help="don't recurse down")
+ parser.add_argument('-l', action='store_const', const=0,
+ default=10, dest='maxlevels',
+ help="don't recurse into subdirectories")
parser.add_argument('-f', action='store_true', dest='force',
help='force rebuild even if timestamps are up to date')
parser.add_argument('-q', action='store_true', dest='quiet',
- help='reduce output')
+ help='output only error messages')
parser.add_argument('-b', action='store_true', dest='legacy',
- help='produce legacy byte-compiled file paths')
+ help='use legacy (pre-PEP3147) compiled file locations')
parser.add_argument('-d', metavar='DESTDIR', dest='ddir', default=None,
- help=('purported directory name for error messages; '
- 'if no directory arguments, -l sys.path '
- 'is assumed.'))
+ help=('directory to prepend to file paths for use in '
+ 'compile time tracebacks and in runtime '
+ 'tracebacks in cases where the source file is '
+ 'unavailable'))
parser.add_argument('-x', metavar='REGEXP', dest='rx', default=None,
- help=('skip files matching the regular expression.\n\t'
+ help=('skip files matching the regular expression. '
'The regexp is searched for in the full path '
- 'of the file'))
+ 'to each file considered for compilation.'))
parser.add_argument('-i', metavar='FILE', dest='flist',
- help='expand the list with the content of FILE.')
- parser.add_argument('compile_dest', metavar='FILE|DIR', nargs='*')
+ help=('add all the files and directories listed in '
+ 'FILE to the list considered for compilation. '
+ 'If "-", names are read from stdin.'))
+ parser.add_argument('compile_dest', metavar='FILE|DIR', nargs='*',
+ help=('zero or more file and directory names '
+ 'to compile; if no arguments given, defaults '
+ 'to the equivalent of -l sys.path'))
args = parser.parse_args()
compile_dests = args.compile_dest