[Python-Dev] Finding the python library binaries (and docs) (original) (raw)

David Abrahams dave at boost-consulting.com
Tue Mar 6 20:20:56 CET 2007

I'm trying to find the Python library binaries associated with a given python executable.

If I look at the help for sys.prefix and sys.exec_prefix

import sys; help(sys)

I see:

prefix -- prefix used to find the Python library
exec_prefix -- prefix used to find the machine-specific Python library

This text is somewhat ambiguous, but from the fact that exec_prefix refers to the "machine-specific" Python library I'm led to guess that prefix's "the Python library" refers to the .py files that form most of the Python standard library, and "the machine-specific Python library" perhaps refers to the library binaries such as libpython25.a.

However, neither of those interpretations seems to correspond to reality. My guess is that these constants correspond to the --prefix and --exec_prefix options to the configure script invocation that was used to build Python.

What I'm really looking for, I think, is the directory corresponding to the --libdir option to configure, but I don't see that in sys.

If I look at "configure --help," it claims the default libdir is EPREFIX/lib, so I suppose I could look in sys.exec_prefix+'/lib', but when I look at real installations I find only the shared libraries in that location. For the static libraries, I have to look in EPREFIX/lib/python$(version)/config/, and in fact there is a symlink there to the shared libs.

So:

  1. I think the documentation for sys and configure both need some updating

  2. I'd like to know if there's an officially correct procedure for finding the library binaries associated with a Python executable.

Thanks in advance,

-- Dave Abrahams Boost Consulting www.boost-consulting.com

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