Should I put #! (shebang) in Python scripts, and what form should it take?
You should include a shebang (#!) in Python scripts if you want the script to be directly executable from the command line.
You should include a shebang (#!) in Python scripts if you want the script to be directly executable from the command line on POSIX-compliant systems (like Linux or macOS). The shebang must be the very first line of the file and specifies the interpreter to use. Here's a common example:
A shebang example in a Linux or macOS environment
#!/usr/bin/env python3This tells the system to use the env utility to locate python3 in your system's $PATH and run the script with it. After adding the shebang, you must make the file executable by running chmod +x your_script.py in the terminal.
On Windows, shebangs are completely ignored by the operating system. To run a script directly, Windows relies on file associations configured during the Python installation. If your .py files are associated with the Python Launcher (py.exe), you can simply double-click the script or run it from the command prompt without any special first-line syntax.