# 18.9 `compileall` -- Byte-compile Python libraries

This module provides some utility functions to support installing Python libraries. These functions compile Python source files in a directory tree, allowing users without permission to write to the libraries to take advantage of cached byte-code files.

The source file for this module may also be used as a script to compile Python sources in directories named on the command line or in `sys.path`.

`compile_dir`( | dir[, maxlevels[, ddir[, force[, rx[, quiet]]]]])

  Recursively descend the directory tree named by dir, compiling all .py files along the way. The maxlevels parameter is used to limit the depth of the recursion; it defaults to `10`. If ddir is given, it is used as the base path from which the filenames used in error messages will be generated. If force is true, modules are re-compiled even if the timestamps are up to date.

  If rx is given, it specifies a regular expression of file names to exclude from the search; that expression is searched for in the full path.

  If quiet is true, nothing is printed to the standard output in normal operation.

`compile_path`( | [skip_curdir[, maxlevels[, force]]])

  Byte-compile all the .py files found along `sys.path`. If skip_curdir is true (the default), the current directory is not included in the search. The maxlevels and force parameters default to `0` and are passed to the `compile_dir()` function.

See Also:

Module `py_compile`:
  Byte-compile a single source file.