When you run your project for the first time, Python compiles all of your *.py code in bytecode-compiled files, *.pyc, which are used later for execution. Normally, when you change the *.py files, *.pyc is recompiled; however, sometimes when you switch branches or move the directories, you need to clean up the compiled files manually.
Deleting Python-compiled files
Getting ready
Use your favorite editor and edit or create a .bash_profile file in your home directory.
How to do it...
- Add this alias at the end of .bash_profile, as follows:
# ~/.bash_profile
alias delpyc='
find . -name "*.py[co]" -delete
find . -type d -name "__pycache__" -delete'
- Now, to clean the Python-compiled files, go to your project directory and type the following command on the command line:
(env)$ delpyc
How it works...
At first, we create a Unix alias that searches for the *.pyc and *.pyo files and __pycache__ directories and deletes them in the current directory, as well as its children. The .bash_profile file is executed when you start a new session in the command-line tool.
There's more...
If you want to avoid creating Python-compiled files altogether, you can set an environment variable, PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1, in your .bash_profile, env/bin/activate script, or PyCharm configuration.
See also
- The Creating the Git ignore file recipe