Is it possible to speed-up python IO?

Question

Consider this python program:

import sys

lc = 0
for line in open(sys.argv[1]):
    lc = lc + 1

print lc, sys.argv[1]

Running it on my 6GB

Answer 1

plain "no".

You've pretty much reached maximum disk speed.

I mean, you could mmap the file, or read it in binary chunks, and use .count('\n') or something. But that is unlikely to give major improvements.