Where is my _pycache_ folder and .pyc byte code files?

Question

I'm running Python 3.4.1 on Windows 7 and thought that after running my .py script in the command line, a directory named _pycache_ would be created in the same directory that my script ran in. It is not there, even after I made sure that 'Show hidden files, folders, and drives' was checked. I looked around here and on Google but can't seem to get an answer that makes this visible.

Can someone help? I'm new to Python and would like to look over the byte code files.

Answer 1

The directory is called __pycache__ (with double underscores).

It'll only be created if Python has permission to create a directory in the same location the .py file lives. The folder is not hidden in any way, if it is not there, then Python did not create it.

Note that .pyc bytecode cache files are only created for modules your code imports; it is not created for the main script file. If you run python.exe foobar.py, no __pycache__/foobar.cpython-34.pyc file is created.