对我来说，这个变体是最快的:

#!/usr/bin/env python

def main():
    f = open('filename')                  
    lines = 0
    buf_size = 1024 * 1024
    read_f = f.read # loop optimization

    buf = read_f(buf_size)
    while buf:
        lines += buf.count('\n')
        buf = read_f(buf_size)

    print lines

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

原因:缓冲比逐行和逐字符串读取快。计数也非常快

我相信内存映射文件将是最快的解决方案。我尝试了四个函数:由OP发布的函数(opcount);对文件中的行进行简单迭代(simplecount);带有内存映射字段(mmap)的Readline (mapcount);以及Mykola Kharechko (buffcount)提供的缓冲区读取解决方案。

我将每个函数运行五次，并计算出120万在线文本文件的平均运行时间。

Windows XP, Python 2.5, 2GB RAM, 2ghz AMD处理器

以下是我的结果:

mapcount : 0.465599966049
simplecount : 0.756399965286
bufcount : 0.546800041199
opcount : 0.718600034714

编辑:Python 2.6的数字:

mapcount : 0.471799945831
simplecount : 0.634400033951
bufcount : 0.468800067902
opcount : 0.602999973297

因此，对于Windows/Python 2.6，缓冲区读取策略似乎是最快的

代码如下:

from __future__ import with_statement
import time
import mmap
import random
from collections import defaultdict

def mapcount(filename):
    f = open(filename, "r+")
    buf = mmap.mmap(f.fileno(), 0)
    lines = 0
    readline = buf.readline
    while readline():
        lines += 1
    return lines

def simplecount(filename):
    lines = 0
    for line in open(filename):
        lines += 1
    return lines

def bufcount(filename):
    f = open(filename)                  
    lines = 0
    buf_size = 1024 * 1024
    read_f = f.read # loop optimization

    buf = read_f(buf_size)
    while buf:
        lines += buf.count('\n')
        buf = read_f(buf_size)

    return lines

def opcount(fname):
    with open(fname) as f:
        for i, l in enumerate(f):
            pass
    return i + 1


counts = defaultdict(list)

for i in range(5):
    for func in [mapcount, simplecount, bufcount, opcount]:
        start_time = time.time()
        assert func("big_file.txt") == 1209138
        counts[func].append(time.time() - start_time)

for key, vals in counts.items():
    print key.__name__, ":", sum(vals) / float(len(vals))

一句话解决方案:

import os
os.system("wc -l  filename")  

我的代码片段:

>>> os.system('wc -l *.txt')

0 bar.txt
1000 command.txt
3 test_file.txt
1003 total

在perfplot分析之后，必须推荐缓冲读取解决方案

def buf_count_newlines_gen(fname):
    def _make_gen(reader):
        while True:
            b = reader(2 ** 16)
            if not b: break
            yield b

    with open(fname, "rb") as f:
        count = sum(buf.count(b"\n") for buf in _make_gen(f.raw.read))
    return count

它速度快，内存效率高。大多数其他解决方案大约要慢20倍。

代码重现情节:

import mmap
import subprocess
from functools import partial

import perfplot


def setup(n):
    fname = "t.txt"
    with open(fname, "w") as f:
        for i in range(n):
            f.write(str(i) + "\n")
    return fname


def for_enumerate(fname):
    i = 0
    with open(fname) as f:
        for i, _ in enumerate(f):
            pass
    return i + 1


def sum1(fname):
    return sum(1 for _ in open(fname))


def mmap_count(fname):
    with open(fname, "r+") as f:
        buf = mmap.mmap(f.fileno(), 0)

    lines = 0
    while buf.readline():
        lines += 1
    return lines


def for_open(fname):
    lines = 0
    for _ in open(fname):
        lines += 1
    return lines


def buf_count_newlines(fname):
    lines = 0
    buf_size = 2 ** 16
    with open(fname) as f:
        buf = f.read(buf_size)
        while buf:
            lines += buf.count("\n")
            buf = f.read(buf_size)
    return lines


def buf_count_newlines_gen(fname):
    def _make_gen(reader):
        b = reader(2 ** 16)
        while b:
            yield b
            b = reader(2 ** 16)

    with open(fname, "rb") as f:
        count = sum(buf.count(b"\n") for buf in _make_gen(f.raw.read))
    return count


def wc_l(fname):
    return int(subprocess.check_output(["wc", "-l", fname]).split()[0])


def sum_partial(fname):
    with open(fname) as f:
        count = sum(x.count("\n") for x in iter(partial(f.read, 2 ** 16), ""))
    return count


def read_count(fname):
    return open(fname).read().count("\n")


b = perfplot.bench(
    setup=setup,
    kernels=[
        for_enumerate,
        sum1,
        mmap_count,
        for_open,
        wc_l,
        buf_count_newlines,
        buf_count_newlines_gen,
        sum_partial,
        read_count,
    ],
    n_range=[2 ** k for k in range(27)],
    xlabel="num lines",
)
b.save("out.png")
b.show()

一行，可能很快:

num_lines = sum(1 for line in open('myfile.txt'))

这个怎么样?

import fileinput
import sys

counter=0
for line in fileinput.input([sys.argv[1]]):
    counter+=1

fileinput.close()
print counter