Command line option -U not documented

[stevendaprano]

BPO	7821
Nosy	@loewis, @birkenfeld, @stevendaprano

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

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GitHub fields:

assignee = 'https://github.com/birkenfeld'
closed_at = <Date 2010-01-31.09:50:04.596>
created_at = <Date 2010-01-31.06:31:28.892>
labels = ['docs']
title = 'Command line option -U not documented'
updated_at = <Date 2010-01-31.18:31:09.791>
user = 'https://github.com/stevendaprano'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2010-01-31.18:31:09.791>
actor = 'loewis'
assignee = 'georg.brandl'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2010-01-31.09:50:04.596>
closer = 'loewis'
components = ['Documentation']
creation = <Date 2010-01-31.06:31:28.892>
creator = 'steven.daprano'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 7821
keywords = []
message_count = 4.0
messages = ['98607', '98609', '98610', '98626']
nosy_count = 3.0
nosy_names = ['loewis', 'georg.brandl', 'steven.daprano']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'wont fix'
stage = None
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = None
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue7821'
versions = ['Python 2.6', 'Python 2.5', 'Python 3.1']

[stevendaprano]

There is a command line switch -U (uppercase U) which is mentioned in PEP-3147 http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-3147/ but doesn't appear to be documented anywhere.

It is listed here, but not described:

http://docs.python.org/using/cmdline.html

Nor does it appear in the output of pythonX --help for X in 2.5, 2.6 and 3.1.

[loewis]

This switch is intentionally not documented.

[stevendaprano]

If the switch is intentionally not documented, perhaps it should be removed from here:

http://docs.python.org/using/cmdline.html#command-line

where it is listed but not explained anywhere. As it stands now, the *existence* of the switch is documented, but not the purpose.

[loewis]

I don't think changing anything is necessary here. Having the option listed gives the curious a chance to discover a piece of Python history :-)