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Interactive Mode

When commands are read from a tty, the interpreter is said to be in interactive mode . In this mode it prompts for the next command with the primary prompt , usually three greater-than signs ( >>> ); for continuation lines it prompts with the secondary prompt , by default three dots ( ... ). The interpreter prints a welcome message stating its version number and a copyright notice before printing the first prompt:

 $ python3.6
 Python 3.6 (default, Sep 16 2015, 09:25:04)
 [GCC 4.8.2] on linux
 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
 >>>

Continuation lines are needed when entering a multi-line construct. As an example, take a look at this if statement:

 >>> the_world_is_flat = True
 >>> if the_world_is_flat:
 ...     print("Be careful not to fall off!") 
 ...

 Be careful not to fall off!