Bytecode Files: The Standard Contract Between Compiler and Virtual Machine(Python Virtual Machine 4)
Learn how Python bytecode files work, from creating .pyc files to parsing and executing bytecode in a virtual machine. Understand the structure and components of CodeObject and bytecode instructions.
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Welcome to the "Python Virtual Machine" Series
From the example in the previous lesson, we can see that bytecode files are central to the entire Python language implementation. In this lesson, we will focus on the format of bytecode files, with the goal of successfully loading the Python 3.8 bytecode into memory.
The CPython virtual machine can execute both .py files and compiled .pyc files. This is because CPython includes a compiler that can compile .py files, and when executing a .py file, the first step is to translate the .py file into a bytecode file.
Next, we will deeply analyze the structure of .pyc files, parse these files, load their contents into memory, and prepare them for execution.