1: 获得一般帮助

如果在控制台中调用 help 函数而不带任何参数，Python 就会显示一个交互式帮助控制台，您可以在其中找到有关 Python 模块、符号、关键字等的信息。

>>> help()

Welcome to Python 3.4's help utility!

If this is your first time using Python, you should definitely check out
the tutorial on the Internet at http://docs.python.org/3.4/tutorial/.

Enter the name of any module, keyword, or topic to get help on writing
Python programs and using Python modules. To quit this help utility and
return to the interpreter, just type "quit".

To get a list of available modules, keywords, symbols, or topics, type
"modules", "keywords", "symbols", or "topics". Each module also comes
with a one-line summary of what it does; to list the modules whose name
or summary contain a given string such as "spam", type "modules spam".

2: 参考最后一个表达式

要获取控制台中最后一个表达式的最后结果值，请使用下划线 _。

>>> 2 + 2
4
>>> _
4
>>> _ + 6
10

这个神奇的下划线值只有在使用 Python 表达式产生值时才会更新。定义函数或 for 循环不会更改该值。如果表达式引发异常，_ 不会发生变化。

>>> "Hello, {0}".format("World")
'Hello, World'
>>> _
'Hello, World'
>>> def wontchangethings():
...     pass
>>> _
'Hello, World'
>>> 27 / 0
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "", line 1, in 
ZeroDivisionError: division by zero
>>> _
'Hello, World'

请记住，这个神奇的变量只能在交互式 python 解释器中使用。运行脚本时无法使用。

3: 打开 Python 控制台

在 Windows 控制台中键入 py 或在其他平台上键入 python，通常就能打开 Python 主版本的控制台。

$ py
Python 3.4.3 (v3.4.3:9b73f1c3e601, Feb 24 2015, 22:44:40) [MSC v.1600 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>

如果您有多个版本，那么默认情况下，它们的可执行文件将分别映射到 python2 或 python3。

当然，这取决于 Python 可执行文件是否在你的 PATH 中。

4: PYTHONSTARTUP变量

您可以为 Python 控制台设置一个名为 PYTHONSTARTUP 的环境变量。每当进入 Python 控制台时，这个文件就会被执行，这样就可以为控制台添加额外的功能，比如自动导入常用模块。

如果将 PYTHONSTARTUP 变量设置为包含以下内容的文件的位置：

print("Welcome!")

然后打开 Python 控制台，就会出现这些额外的输出：

$ py
Python 3.4.3 (v3.4.3:9b73f1c3e601, Feb 24 2015, 22:44:40) [MSC v.1600 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
Welcome!
>>>

5: 命令行参数

Python 有多种命令行开关可以传递给 py。执行 py --help 可以找到这些开关，在 Python 3.9 上的输出是这样的：

% python3 --help
usage: /usr/local/bin/python3 [option] ... [-c cmd | -m mod | file | -] [arg] ...
Options and arguments (and corresponding environment variables):
-b     : issue warnings about str(bytes_instance), str(bytearray_instance)
         and comparing bytes/bytearray with str. (-bb: issue errors)
-B     : don't write .pyc files on import; also PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=x
-c cmd : program passed in as string (terminates option list)
-d     : turn on parser debugging output (for experts only, only works on
         debug builds); also PYTHONDEBUG=x
-E     : ignore PYTHON* environment variables (such as PYTHONPATH)
-h     : print this help message and exit (also --help)
-i     : inspect interactively after running script; forces a prompt even
         if stdin does not appear to be a terminal; also PYTHONINSPECT=x
-I     : isolate Python from the user's environment (implies -E and -s)
-m mod : run library module as a script (terminates option list)
-O     : remove assert and __debug__-dependent statements; add .opt-1 before
         .pyc extension; also PYTHONOPTIMIZE=x
-OO    : do -O changes and also discard docstrings; add .opt-2 before
         .pyc extension
-q     : don't print version and copyright messages on interactive startup
-s     : don't add user site directory to sys.path; also PYTHONNOUSERSITE
-S     : don't imply 'import site' on initialization
-u     : force the stdout and stderr streams to be unbuffered;
         this option has no effect on stdin; also PYTHONUNBUFFERED=x
-v     : verbose (trace import statements); also PYTHONVERBOSE=x
         can be supplied multiple times to increase verbosity
-V     : print the Python version number and exit (also --version)
         when given twice, print more information about the build
-W arg : warning control; arg is action:message:category:module:lineno
         also PYTHONWARNINGS=arg
-x     : skip first line of source, allowing use of non-Unix forms of #!cmd
-X opt : set implementation-specific option. The following options are available:

         -X faulthandler: enable faulthandler
         -X oldparser: enable the traditional LL(1) parser; also PYTHONOLDPARSER
         -X showrefcount: output the total reference count and number of used
             memory blocks when the program finishes or after each statement in the
             interactive interpreter. This only works on debug builds
         -X tracemalloc: start tracing Python memory allocations using the
             tracemalloc module. By default, only the most recent frame is stored in a
             traceback of a trace. Use -X tracemalloc=NFRAME to start tracing with a
             traceback limit of NFRAME frames
         -X importtime: show how long each import takes. It shows module name,
             cumulative time (including nested imports) and self time (excluding
             nested imports). Note that its output may be broken in multi-threaded
             application. Typical usage is python3 -X importtime -c 'import asyncio'
         -X dev: enable CPython's "development mode", introducing additional runtime
             checks which are too expensive to be enabled by default. Effect of the
             developer mode:
                * Add default warning filter, as -W default
                * Install debug hooks on memory allocators: see the PyMem_SetupDebugHooks() C function
                * Enable the faulthandler module to dump the Python traceback on a crash
                * Enable asyncio debug mode
                * Set the dev_mode attribute of sys.flags to True
                * io.IOBase destructor logs close() exceptions
         -X utf8: enable UTF-8 mode for operating system interfaces, overriding the default
             locale-aware mode. -X utf8=0 explicitly disables UTF-8 mode (even when it would
             otherwise activate automatically)
         -X pycache_prefix=PATH: enable writing .pyc files to a parallel tree rooted at the
             given directory instead of to the code tree

--check-hash-based-pycs always|default|never:
    control how Python invalidates hash-based .pyc files
file   : program read from script file
-      : program read from stdin (default; interactive mode if a tty)
arg ...: arguments passed to program in sys.argv[1:]

Other environment variables:
PYTHONSTARTUP: file executed on interactive startup (no default)
PYTHONPATH   : ':'-separated list of directories prefixed to the
               default module search path.  The result is sys.path.
PYTHONHOME   : alternate  directory (or :).
               The default module search path uses /lib/pythonX.X.
PYTHONPLATLIBDIR : override sys.platlibdir.
PYTHONCASEOK : ignore case in 'import' statements (Windows).
PYTHONUTF8: if set to 1, enable the UTF-8 mode.
PYTHONIOENCODING: Encoding[:errors] used for stdin/stdout/stderr.
PYTHONFAULTHANDLER: dump the Python traceback on fatal errors.
PYTHONHASHSEED: if this variable is set to 'random', a random value is used
   to seed the hashes of str and bytes objects.  It can also be set to an
   integer in the range [0,4294967295] to get hash values with a
   predictable seed.
PYTHONMALLOC: set the Python memory allocators and/or install debug hooks
   on Python memory allocators. Use PYTHONMALLOC=debug to install debug
   hooks.
PYTHONCOERCECLOCALE: if this variable is set to 0, it disables the locale
   coercion behavior. Use PYTHONCOERCECLOCALE=warn to request display of
   locale coercion and locale compatibility warnings on stderr.
PYTHONBREAKPOINT: if this variable is set to 0, it disables the default
   debugger. It can be set to the callable of your debugger of choice.
PYTHONDEVMODE: enable the development mode.
PYTHONPYCACHEPREFIX: root directory for bytecode cache (pyc) files.

6: 获取有关对象的帮助

Python 控制台添加了一个新函数 help，用来获取函数或对象的信息。

对于一个函数，help 会打印它的签名（参数）和 docstring（如果函数有 docstring）。

>>> help(print)
Help on built-in function print in module builtins:
  
print(...)
  print(value, ..., sep=' ', end='\n', file=sys.stdout, flush=False)
  
  Prints the values to a stream, or to sys.stdout by default.
  Optional keyword arguments:
  file: a file-like object (stream); defaults to the current sys.stdout.
  sep: string inserted between values, default a space.
  end: string appended after the last value, default a newline.
  flush: whether to forcibly flush the stream.

对于一个对象，help 列出了该对象的 docstring 以及该对象的不同成员函数。

>>> x = 2
>>> help(x)
Help on int object:

class int(object)
| int(x=0) -> integer
| int(x, base=10) -> integer
|
| Convert a number or string to an integer, or return 0 if no arguments
| are given. If x is a number, return x.__int__(). For floating point
| numbers, this truncates towards zero.
|
| If x is not a number or if base is given, then x must be a string,
| bytes, or bytearray instance representing an integer literal in the
| given base. The literal can be preceded by '+' or '-' and be surrounded
| by whitespace. The base defaults to 10. Valid bases are 0 and 2-36.
| Base 0 means to interpret the base from the string as an integer literal.
| >>> int('0b100', base=0)
| 4
|
| Methods defined here:
|
| __abs__(self, /)
| abs(self)
|
| __add__(self, value, /)
| Return self+value...