1 .. _library-index:

     2 

     3 ###############################

     4   The Python Standard Library

     5 ###############################

     6 

     7 :Release: |version|

     8 :Date: |today|

     9 

    10 While :ref:`reference-index` describes the exact syntax and

    11 semantics of the Python language, this library reference manual

    12 describes the standard library that is distributed with Python. It also

    13 describes some of the optional components that are commonly included

    14 in Python distributions.

    15 

    16 Python's standard library is very extensive, offering a wide range of

    17 facilities as indicated by the long table of contents listed below. The

    18 library contains built-in modules (written in C) that provide access to

    19 system functionality such as file I/O that would otherwise be

    20 inaccessible to Python programmers, as well as modules written in Python

    21 that provide standardized solutions for many problems that occur in

    22 everyday programming. Some of these modules are explicitly designed to

    23 encourage and enhance the portability of Python programs by abstracting

    24 away platform-specifics into platform-neutral APIs.

    25 

    26 The Python installers for the Windows platform usually includes

    27 the entire standard library and often also include many additional

    28 components. For Unix-like operating systems Python is normally provided

    29 as a collection of packages, so it may be necessary to use the packaging

    30 tools provided with the operating system to obtain some or all of the

    31 optional components.

    32 

    33 In addition to the standard library, there is a growing collection of

    34 several thousand components (from individual programs and modules to

    35 packages and entire application development frameworks), available from

    36 the `Python Package Index <http://pypi.python.org/pypi>`_.

    37 

    38 

    39 .. toctree::

    40    :maxdepth: 2

    41 

    42    intro.rst

    43    functions.rst

    44    constants.rst

    45    objects.rst

    46    stdtypes.rst

    47    exceptions.rst

    48 

    49    strings.rst

    50    datatypes.rst

    51    numeric.rst

    52    filesys.rst

    53    persistence.rst

    54    archiving.rst

    55    fileformats.rst

    56    crypto.rst

    57    allos.rst

    58    someos.rst

    59    ipc.rst

    60    netdata.rst

    61    markup.rst

    62    internet.rst

    63    mm.rst

    64    i18n.rst

    65    frameworks.rst

    66    tk.rst

    67    development.rst

    68    debug.rst

    69    python.rst

    70    custominterp.rst

    71    restricted.rst

    72    modules.rst

    73    language.rst

    74    compiler.rst

    75    misc.rst

    76    windows.rst

    77    unix.rst

    78    mac.rst

    79    macosa.rst

    80    sgi.rst

    81    sun.rst

    82    undoc.rst