[Python-Dev] pkgutil, pkg_resource and Python 3.0 name space packages (original) (raw)

Barry Warsaw barry at python.org
Mon Jan 7 22:01:42 CET 2008

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On Jan 7, 2008, at 11:37 AM, Phillip J. Eby wrote:

Python automatically adds ~/.python/site-packages to sys.path; this is added /before/ the system site-packages file. An open question is whether it needs to go at the front of the list. It should definitely be searched before the system site-packages. What about including the Python version in the directory name? C Extensions may not work correctly across versions, and bytecode will get recompiled a lot if you're using multiple versions. Also, if this is a 2.6/3.0 change, it's likely that the source won't be compatible across versions either. :)

D'oh, yes of course. So make that:

~/.python/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages

Python treats ~/.python/site-packages the same as the system site- packages, w.r.t. .pth files, etc.

Open question: should we add yet another environment variable to control this? It's pretty typical for apps to expose such a thing so that the base directory (e.g. ~/.python) can be moved. I think that's all that's needed. It would make playing with easyinstall/setuptools nicer to have this. Assuming that this is a true "site" directory (i.e., .pth files are recognized), then yes.

IMO, it should be a true site directory.

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