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The following options will override the IDLE 'settings' configuration:

-e	open an edit window
-i	open a shell window

The following options imply -i and will open a shell:

-c cmd	run the command in a shell, or
-r file	run script from file
-d	enable the debugger
-s	run $IDLESTARTUP or $PYTHONSTARTUP before anything else
-t title	set title of shell window

A default edit window will be bypassed when -c, -r, or - are used.

[arg]* are passed to the command (-c) or script (-r) in sys.argv[1:].

Examples:

idle

Open an edit window or shell depending on IDLE's configuration.

idle foo.py foobar.py

Edit the files, also open a shell if configured to start with shell.

idle -est "Baz" foo.py

Run $IDLESTARTUP or $PYTHONSTARTUP, edit foo.py, and open a shell window with the title "Baz".

idle -c "import sys; print(sys.argv)" "foo"

Open a shell window and run the command, passing "-c" in sys.argv[0] and "foo" in sys.argv[1].

idle -d -s -r foo.py "Hello World"

Open a shell window, run a startup script, enable the debugger, and run foo.py, passing "foo.py" in sys.argv[0] and "Hello World" in sys.argv[1].

echo "import sys; print(sys.argv)" | idle - "foobar"

Open a shell window, run the script piped in, passing '' in sys.argv[0] and "foobar" in sys.argv[1].

Additional common options