add configure option to control the groups of .pyc files to install

[pxinwr]

BPO	44097
Nosy	@gpshead, @tiran, @pxinwr
PRs	bpo-44097: add --enable-pyc-build option to the configure script #23920

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

Show more details

GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = None
created_at = <Date 2021-05-10.07:42:30.095>
labels = ['type-feature', 'build', '3.11']
title = 'add configure option to control the groups of .pyc files to install'
updated_at = <Date 2021-05-10.08:11:29.783>
user = 'https://github.com/pxinwr'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2021-05-10.08:11:29.783>
actor = 'christian.heimes'
assignee = 'none'
closed = False
closed_date = None
closer = None
components = ['Build']
creation = <Date 2021-05-10.07:42:30.095>
creator = 'pxinwr'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 44097
keywords = []
message_count = 3.0
messages = ['393356', '393363', '393365']
nosy_count = 3.0
nosy_names = ['gregory.p.smith', 'christian.heimes', 'pxinwr']
pr_nums = ['23920']
priority = 'normal'
resolution = None
stage = None
status = 'open'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue44097'
versions = ['Python 3.11']

[pxinwr]

Currently when building and installing Python out of source, unoptimized .pyc files and 2 types of optimized .pyc files(*.opt-1.pyc and *.opt-2.pyc) are all compiled out and installed. So to reduce package size and build and installation time, we should provide an option in configure to control the groups of .pyc files to install. For distribution case, normally only one type of .pyc files even none is needed.

[pxinwr]

For the configure option name used in PR# 23930, change it to "--enable-pyc-groups" is better? What is your advice?

[tiran]

Please hold off with PR until we have agreed if we want this feature request makes sense at all. Linux distributions typically provide all pyc variants. There are also better ways to shrink code size, e.g. deduplication or compression.

[encukou]

Nowadays, compileall has the multiple-use -O option:

 -o OPT_LEVELS Optimization levels to run compilation with. Default is -1 which uses the optimization level
 of the Python interpreter itself (see -O).

And the Makefile hardcodes -o 0 -o 1 -o 2. The fix would be to replace that with a new Makefile variable, like COMPILEALL_OPTLEVELS="-o 0 -o 1 -o 2". I don't think it needs to be a configure-time option.

Note that the Makefile can also pass options via the COMPILEALL_OPTS variable. This needs to be left alone; people who override it expect that it doesn't contain the -o options .