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> I would argue that one should never use '-O' it also strips doc strings from running code.

Python `-OO` strips docstrings, `-O` basically only disables assertions. See: http://stackoverflow.com/a/4777156/459543

Or just do "python -h":

-O : optimize generated bytecode slightly; also PYTHONOPTIMIZE=x -OO : remove doc-strings in addition to the -O optimizations

Same on both Py 2 and 3.

I assume that almost nobody uses -O in production.

Probably the same folks who don't test their code probably also remove their assertions in production.

So far as I've ever read, literally all -O does is strip asserts and docstrings. It doesn't really optimise anything.