Way to have compiled python files in a separate folder?

Question

Is it possible to have Python save the .pyc files to a separate folder location that is in sys.path?

/code
    foo.py
    foo.pyc
    bar.py
    bar.pyc

To:

/code
   foo.py
   bar.py
/code_compiled
   foo.pyc
   bar.pyc

I would like this because I feel it'd be more organized. Thanks for any help you can give me.

Answer 1

Update:

In Python 3.8 -X pycache_prefix=PATH command-line option enables writing .pyc files to a parallel tree rooted at the given directory instead of to the code tree. See $PYTHONPYCACHEPREFIX envvar^{credits: @RobertT' answer}

The location of the cache is reported in sys.pycache_prefix (None indicates the default location in __pycache__ [since Python 3.2] subdirectories).

To turn off caching the compiled Python bytecode, -B may be set, then Python won’t try to write .pyc files on the import of source modules. See $PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE envvar^{credits: @Maleev's answer}

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^{Old [Python 2] answer:}

There is PEP 304: Controlling Generation of Bytecode Files. Its status is Withdrawn and corresponding patch rejected. Therefore there might be no direct way to do it.

If you don't need source code then you may just delete *.py files. *.pyc files can be used as is or packed in an egg.