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pythonpython-venvpython-3.14

What is the `𝜋thon` executable?

On Ubuntu or other Linux-based systems, Python 3.14's venv creates an extra executable named 𝜋thon:

$ python --version
Python 3.13.0
$ python -m venv .venv
$ cd .venv/bin && ls
Activate.ps1  activate  activate.csh  activate.fish  pip  pip3  pip3.13  python  python3  python3.13

$ python --version
Python 3.14.0a1+
$ python -m venv .venv
$ cd .venv/bin && ls
𝜋thon  Activate.ps1  activate  activate.csh  activate.fish  pip  pip3  pip3.14  python  python3  python3.14

What does it do and why is it there?

Solution

  • This is an easter egg. The 𝜋thon executable works exactly the same as python, python3 and python3.14.

    The name 𝜋thon itself is a pun on "Python" and 𝜋 ("Pi") the mathematical constant, whose decimal representation starts with "3.14".

    This executable was originally named python𝜋 as a parallelism to python3.14 and other python3.xx executables that are only created on non-Windows operating systems. python𝜋 didn't make the cut, however, since people seem to like 𝜋thon more.