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  <div class="section" id="the-pyqt4-resource-system">
<h1>The PyQt4 Resource System<a class="headerlink" href="#the-pyqt4-resource-system" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p>PyQt4 supports Qt&#8217;s resource system.  This is a facility for embedding
resources such as icons and translation files in an application.  This makes
the packaging and distribution of those resources much easier.</p>
<p>A <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.qrc</span></tt> resource collection file is an XML file used to specify which
resource files are to be embedded.  The application then refers to the resource
files by their original names but preceded by a colon.</p>
<p>For a full description, including the format of the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.qrc</span></tt> files, see the Qt
Resource System in the Qt documentation.</p>
<div class="section" id="pyrcc4">
<h2><strong class="program">pyrcc4</strong><a class="headerlink" href="#pyrcc4" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p><strong class="program">pyrcc4</strong> is PyQt4&#8217;s equivalent to Qt&#8217;s <strong class="program">rcc</strong> utility and is
used in exactly the same way.  <strong class="program">pyrcc4</strong> reads the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.qrc</span></tt> file, and
the resource files, and generates a Python module that only needs to be
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">import</span></tt> ed by the application in order for those resources to be made
available just as if they were the original files.</p>
<p>In addition to the command line options that are common with <strong class="program">rcc</strong>,
the following are also supported:</p>
<dl class="cmdoption">
<dt id="cmdoption-pyrcc4-py2">
<tt class="descname">-py2</tt><tt class="descclassname"></tt><a class="headerlink" href="#cmdoption-pyrcc4-py2" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Generate code that will work for all versions of Python v2.x.  Although
this is the default, the option should be specified explicitly in case the
default is changed in a future version.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="cmdoption">
<dt id="cmdoption-pyrcc4-py3">
<tt class="descname">-py3</tt><tt class="descclassname"></tt><a class="headerlink" href="#cmdoption-pyrcc4-py3" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Generate code that will work for all versions of Python starting with
Python v2.6.</p>
</dd></dl>

<p><strong class="program">pyrcc4</strong> will only be included if your copy of Qt includes the XML
module.</p>
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  <h3><a href="index.html">Table Of Contents</a></h3>
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<li><a class="reference internal" href="#">The PyQt4 Resource System</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#pyrcc4"><strong class="program">pyrcc4</strong></a></li>
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