Which standard library modules are required to run the Python 3.5 interpreter?

Question

Here\'s a CPython program that tries to initialize the interpreter with an empty sys.path:

#include 

int main(int argc, char**          


        

Answer 1

Here's another approach - asking the Python interpreter what modules are loaded:

$ python3.5 -v -S -c '' |& grep SourceFileLoader | sort 
import 'abc' # <_frozen_importlib_external.SourceFileLoader object at 0x7f4b1d12e860>
import '_bootlocale' # <_frozen_importlib_external.SourceFileLoader object at 0x7f4b1d1367b8>
import 'codecs' # <_frozen_importlib_external.SourceFileLoader object at 0x7f4b1d187fd0>
import 'encodings.aliases' # <_frozen_importlib_external.SourceFileLoader object at 0x7f4b1d11eac8>
import 'encodings' # <_frozen_importlib_external.SourceFileLoader object at 0x7f4b1d187be0>
import 'encodings.latin_1' # <_frozen_importlib_external.SourceFileLoader object at 0x7f4b1d12e3c8>
import 'encodings.utf_8' # <_frozen_importlib_external.SourceFileLoader object at 0x7f4b1d12c898>
import 'io' # <_frozen_importlib_external.SourceFileLoader object at 0x7f4b1d12e5f8>
import '_weakrefset' # <_frozen_importlib_external.SourceFileLoader object at 0x7f4b1d135080>

_bootlocale is not required but recommended. It's used for initializing the best encoding for sys.stdin/sys.stdout/sys.stderr. See https://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/fbbf8b160e8d

sys.modules can lie as it's mutable.