Algis Kabaila wrote:
Is PYTHONPATH a system variable that sets the
path for several sessions and if so, where in the system is it?
Do I need to create one for setting python path for several
sessions?
It can be, and there are lots of ways to accomplish what you want, some
of which depends on the platform you are using. I will show one of the
ways that I accomplish this for my linux sessions. This is based on a
very common snippet of code usually found in the users .profile which
modifies the users path in the even the user has a ~/bin directory---
looks like this:
# set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then
PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
fi
When this snippet finds a ~/bin directory in the users ~/ then (and only
then) it modifies the users bash session path with the ~/bin folder at
the head of the path. Well, you can use this same snippet on your system
to modify the PYTHONPATH system variable so that a special folder in
your ~/ directory tree is at or near the head of the sys.path--- looks
like this:
# set PATH so it includes user's private Python if it exists
if [ -d "$HOME/Python" ] ; then
export PYTHONPATH="$HOME/Python:$PYTHONPATH"
fi
You will notice that there is a tiny baby change in the second
snippet... the export. If you want you IDLE launches from the Desktop to
"see" the path set in .profile provide that with the export.
Of course this only works if the Python folder exists in the users ~/
directory tree (or elsewhere, if you code it that way).
By default the sys.path always shows the directory python was opened in,
usually the users home directory. With .profile you can set the path
any way you want... most useful for setting up special test directories
ahead of the "real" code, or for setting up separate directories for
versions--- one for Python26, Python27, and of course Python32.
(there are other ways of accomplishing the same thing, and of course,
this one only really works with *nix systems--- windows is another mess
entirely)
kind regards,
m harris
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