:mod:`__main__` --- Top-level script environment ================================================ .. module:: __main__ :synopsis: The environment where the top-level script is run. ``'__main__'`` is the name of the scope in which top-level code executes. A module's __name__ is set equal to ``'__main__'`` when read from standard input, a script, or from an interactive prompt. A module can discover whether or not it is running in the main scope by checking its own ``__name__``, which allows a common idiom for conditionally executing code in a module when it is run as a script or with ``python -m`` but not when it is imported:: if __name__ == "__main__": # execute only if run as a script main() For a package, the same effect can be achieved by including a ``__main__.py`` module, the contents of which will be executed when the module is run with ``-m``.