From: Petr Viktorin Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2025 12:58:38 +0000 (+0200) Subject: gh-137376: Add note on top-level `global` declarations (GH-137707) X-Git-Tag: v3.15.0a1~627 X-Git-Url: http://git.ipfire.org/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=9f05f98730bbc36f4ad173845458827c4df879f6;p=thirdparty%2FPython%2Fcpython.git gh-137376: Add note on top-level `global` declarations (GH-137707) Co-authored-by: Brian Schubert --- diff --git a/Doc/reference/simple_stmts.rst b/Doc/reference/simple_stmts.rst index 2a72af4e9a32..3f2bcb2a60ee 100644 --- a/Doc/reference/simple_stmts.rst +++ b/Doc/reference/simple_stmts.rst @@ -971,10 +971,17 @@ as globals. It would be impossible to assign to a global variable without :keyword:`!global`, although free variables may refer to globals without being declared global. -The :keyword:`global` statement applies to the entire scope of a function or -class body. A :exc:`SyntaxError` is raised if a variable is used or +The :keyword:`!global` statement applies to the entire current scope +(module, function body or class definition). +A :exc:`SyntaxError` is raised if a variable is used or assigned to prior to its global declaration in the scope. +At the module level, all variables are global, so a :keyword:`!global` +statement has no effect. +However, variables must still not be used or +assigned to prior to their :keyword:`!global` declaration. +This requirement is relaxed in the interactive prompt (:term:`REPL`). + .. index:: pair: built-in function; exec pair: built-in function; eval