Python in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

The sys Module

The attributes of the sys module are bound to data and functions that provide information on the state of the Python interpreter or affect the interpreter directly. This section documents the most frequently used attributes of sys, in alphabetical order.

argv	The list of command-line arguments passed to the main script. argv[0] is the name or full path of the main script, or '-c' if the -c option was used. See The optparse Module for a good way to use sys.argv.
displayhook	displayhook(value) In interactive sessions, the Python interpreter calls displayhook, passing it the result of each expression statement entered. The default displayhook does nothing if value is None; otherwise, it preserves and displays value: if value is not None: _ _builtin_ _._ = value print repr(value) You can rebind sys.displayhook in order to change interactive behavior. The original value is available as sys._ _displayhook_ _.
excepthook	excepthook(type,value,traceback) When an exception is not caught by any handler, and thus propagates all the way up the call stack, Python calls excepthook, passing it the exception class, exception object, and traceback object, as covered in Exception Propagation. The default excepthook displays the error and traceback. You can rebind sys.excepthook to change what is displayed for uncaught exceptions (just before Python returns to the interactive loop or terminates). The original value is available as sys._ _excepthook_ _.
exc_info	exc_info( ) If the current thread ...