How to get the PYTHONPATH in shell?

Question

debian@debian:~$ echo $PYTHONPATH  
/home/qiime/lib/:  
debian@debian:~$ python  
Python 2.7.3 (default, Jan  2 2013, 16:53:07)   
[GCC 4.7.2] on linux2  
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.  
>>> import sys  
>>> sys.path  
['', '/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/feedparser-5.1.3-py2.7.egg',   
'/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/stripogram-1.5-py2.7.egg', '/home/qiime/lib', 
'/home/debian', '/usr/lib/python2.7', '/usr/lib/python2.7/plat-linux2',   
'/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-tk', '/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-old', '/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-
dynload',   '/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages', '/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages', 
'/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/PIL', '/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gst-0.10',  
'/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gtk-2.0', '/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7']

How can I get all of PYTHONPATH output in bash?
Why echo $PYTHONPATH can not get all of them?

sys.path is not PYTHONPATH, sys.path actually consists of multiple things : current dir,PYTHONPATH,standard library, and paths contained in .pth files if any. docs.python.org/2/tutorial/modules.html#the-module-search-path — Ashwini Chaudhary
– Ashwini Chaudhary, Commented Apr 29, 2013 at 1:17

Chris_Rands · Accepted Answer · 2016-12-06 09:39:05Z

138

The environment variable PYTHONPATH is actually only added to the list of locations Python searches for modules. You can print out the full list in the terminal like this:

python -c "import sys; print(sys.path)"

Or if want the output in the UNIX directory list style (separated by :) you can do this:

python -c "import sys; print(':'.join(x for x in sys.path if x))"

Which will output something like this:

/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/feedparser-5.1.3-py2.7.egg:/usr/local/lib/
python2.7/dist-packages/stripogram-1.5-py2.7.egg:/home/qiime/lib:/home/debian:/us
r/lib/python2.7:/usr/lib/python2.7/plat-linux2:/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-tk:/usr/lib
/python2.7/lib-old:/usr/lib/python2.7/lib- dynload:/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-
packages:/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages:/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/PIL:/u
sr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gst-0.10:/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gtk-2.0:
/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7

edited Dec 6, 2016 at 9:39

Chris_Rands

41.7k15 gold badges92 silver badges126 bronze badges

answered Apr 29, 2013 at 1:17

Hubro

60k74 gold badges241 silver badges404 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

8 Comments

variable Over a year ago

Is sys path same as PYTHONPATH?

Hubro Over a year ago

@variable No, the paths in PYTHONPATH is added to the paths in sys.path when the Python interpreter starts. In other words, sys.path will include all the paths in PYTHONPATH, but also additional paths, like the path to the Python standard library and the path to installed packages.

variable Over a year ago

OK, Please can you advise how I can get the value of PYTHONPATH?

Hubro Over a year ago

@variable In bash echo $PYTHONPATH, in Python 3 import os; print(os.environ["PYTHONPATH"])

variable Over a year ago

This gives me syntax error (pointing to end of import word - EOL while scanning string literal): python -c 'import os; print(os.environ["PYTHONPATH"])'. If I use double quote then it says "name 'PYTHONPATH' is not defined"

|

Community · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-03 21:12:31Z

24

Just write:

just write which python in your terminal and you will see the python path you are using.

edited Feb 3, 2021 at 21:12

CommunityBot

11 silver badge

answered Mar 22, 2016 at 6:00

cjahangir

1,79719 silver badges28 bronze badges

3 Comments

abalter Over a year ago

That's the path to the python executable NOT the PYTHONPATH. PYTHONPATH is where python itself looks for modules to import.

qurban Over a year ago

The path where Python itself exists is called PYTHON_HOME or PYTHONHOME

Rui Monteiro Over a year ago

>>> which python File "<stdin>", line 1 which python ^^^^^^ SyntaxError: invalid syntax >>>

zzzzzzz · Accepted Answer · 2015-11-18 21:49:14Z

16

Those of us using Python 3.x should do this:

python -c "import sys; print(sys.path)"

answered Nov 18, 2015 at 21:49

zzzzzzz

1841 silver badge5 bronze badges

Comments

Community · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-17 16:54:12Z

You can also try this:

Python 2.x:
python -c "import sys; print '\n'.join(sys.path)"

Python 3.x:
python3 -c "import sys; print('\n'.join(sys.path))"

The output will be more readable and clean, like so:

/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python27.zip /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7 /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/plat-darwin /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/plat-mac /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/plat-mac/lib-scriptpackages /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/lib-tk /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/lib-old /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/lib-dynload /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/PyObjC

Please notice that there is a typo in the second line of code. It should read 'python', not 'python3'.
@Pauli not a typo. One (old) convention is to install Python 2.7 as "python" and Python 3.x as "python3".

Guy Avraham · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-20 16:01:08Z

9

Python, at startup, loads a bunch of values into sys.path (which is "implemented" via a list of strings), including:

various hardcoded places
the value of $PYTHONPATH
probably some stuff from startup files (I'm not sure if Python has rcfiles)

$PYTHONPATH is only one part of the eventual value of sys.path.

If you're after the value of sys.path, the best way would be to ask Python (thanks @Codemonkey):

python -c "import sys; print sys.path"

edited Sep 20, 2019 at 16:01

Guy Avraham

3,7583 gold badges43 silver badges55 bronze badges

answered Apr 29, 2013 at 1:20

michaelb958--GoFundMonica

4,7367 gold badges33 silver badges35 bronze badges

1 Comment

M Alok Jun 2 at 10:25

for python 3, use python -c "import sys; print(sys.path)"

Guy Avraham · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-23 17:33:10Z

Adding to @zzzzzzz answer, I ran the command:python3 -c "import sys; print(sys.path)" and it provided me with different paths comparing to the same command with python. The paths that were displayed with python3 were "python3 oriented".

See the output of the two different commands:

python -c "import sys; print(sys.path)"

['', '/usr/lib/python2.7', '/usr/lib/python2.7/plat-x86_64-linux-gnu', '/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-tk', '/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-old', '/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-dynload', '/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages', '/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/setuptools-39.1.0-py2.7.egg', '/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages']

python3 -c "import sys; print(sys.path)"

['', '/usr/lib/python36.zip', '/usr/lib/python3.6', '/usr/lib/python3.6/lib-dynload', '/usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages', '/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages']

Both commands were executed on my Ubuntu 18.04 machine.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How to get the PYTHONPATH in shell?

6 Answers 6

8 Comments

Just write:

3 Comments

Comments

2 Comments

1 Comment

Comments

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

6 Answers 6

8 Comments

Just write:

3 Comments

Comments

2 Comments

1 Comment

Comments

Linked

Related