How do I find the location of my Python site-packages directory

0 votes
How do I find the location of my site-packages directory?
Dec 28, 2020 in Python by anonymous
• 10,520 points
86,031 views

3 answers to this question.

0 votes

There are two types of site-packages directories, global and per user.

  1. Global site-packages ("dist-packages") directories are listed in sys.path when you run:

    python -m site
    

    For a more concise list run getsitepackages from the site module in Python code:

    python -c 'import site; print(site.getsitepackages())'
    

    Note: With virtualenvs getsitepackages is not available, sys.path from above will list the virtualenv's site-packages directory correctly, though. In Python 3, you may use the sysconfig module instead:

    python3 -c 'import sysconfig; print(sysconfig.get_paths()["purelib"])'
    
  2. The per user site-packages directory (PEP 370) is where Python installs your local packages:

    python -m site --user-site
    

    If this points to a non-existing directory check the exit status of Python and see python -m site --help for explanations.

    Hint: Running pip list --user or pip freeze --user gives you a list of all installed per user site-packages.


Practical Tips

  • <package>.__path__ lets you identify the location(s) of a specific package: (details)

    $ python -c "import setuptools as _; print(_.__path__)"
    ['/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/setuptools']
    
  • <module>.__file__ lets you identify the location of a specific module: (difference)

    $ python3 -c "import os as _; print(_.__file__)"
    /usr/lib/python3.6/os.py
    
  • Run pip show <package> to show Debian-style package information:

    $ pip show pytest
    Name: pytest
    Version: 3.8.2
    Summary: pytest: simple powerful testing with Python
    Home-page: https://docs.pytest.org/en/latest/
    Author: Holger Krekel, Bruno Oliveira, Ronny Pfannschmidt, Floris Bruynooghe, Brianna Laugher, Florian Bruhin and others
    Author-email: None
    License: MIT license
    Location: /home/peter/.local/lib/python3.4/site-packages
    Requires: more-itertools, atomicwrites, setuptools, attrs, pathlib2, six, py, pluggy
answered Dec 28, 2020 by Gitika
• 65,910 points
0 votes

You can find the location of Python site-packages directory by using the site module in the following way −

>>> import site
>>> site.getsitepackages()
['/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages', '/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages']

If you want the per user site packages directory, then run the following code in your shell −

$ python -m site --user-site
answered Dec 28, 2020 by Reshma
0 votes

Configuring Python to use additional locations for site-packages , "A path configuration file is a file whose name has the form name.pth and exists in one of the four [root@home]$ echo "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/" of the add-on so that it properly goes into the site-packages dir. So Python will find any packages that have been installed to those locations. How sys.path gets populated. As the docs explain, sys.path is populated using the current working directory, followed by directories listed in your PYTHONPATH environment variable, followed by installation-dependent default paths, which are controlled by the site module.

answered Dec 28, 2020 by Nikita

Related Questions In Python

+1 vote
1 answer
0 votes
1 answer

How can I find out the index of an element from row and column in Python?

You probably want to use np.ravel_multi_index: [code] import numpy ...READ MORE

answered Apr 16, 2018 in Python by charlie_brown
• 7,720 points
2,017 views
0 votes
1 answer

In NumPy how do I get the maximum of subsets? Python

You can use np.maximum.reduceat: >>> _, idx = np.unique(g, ...READ MORE

answered Nov 9, 2018 in Python by Nymeria
• 3,560 points
1,281 views
0 votes
2 answers
+1 vote
2 answers

how can i count the items in a list?

Syntax :            list. count(value) Code: colors = ['red', 'green', ...READ MORE

answered Jul 7, 2019 in Python by Neha
• 330 points

edited Jul 8, 2019 by Kalgi 4,023 views
0 votes
1 answer
+5 votes
6 answers

Lowercase in Python

You can simply the built-in function in ...READ MORE

answered Apr 11, 2018 in Python by hemant
• 5,790 points
3,411 views
+1 vote
4 answers

How do i resolve the "unexpected indent" error in python?

Look for the whitespaces which are not ...READ MORE

answered Aug 2, 2019 in Python by Mohammad
• 3,230 points
133,063 views
0 votes
1 answer

I want to download a file from the website by web scraping. Can anyone explain how to do this in jupyter lab (python) with an example?

Hey, Web scraping is a technique to automatically ...READ MORE

answered Apr 7, 2020 in Python by Gitika
• 65,910 points
2,075 views
webinar REGISTER FOR FREE WEBINAR X
REGISTER NOW
webinar_success Thank you for registering Join Edureka Meetup community for 100+ Free Webinars each month JOIN MEETUP GROUP