The initialization of the sys.path module search path

A module search path is initialized when Python starts. This module search path may be accessed at sys.path.

The first entry in the module search path is the directory that contains the input script, if there is one. Otherwise, the first entry is the current directory, which is the case when executing the interactive shell, a -c command, or -m module.

The PYTHONPATH environment variable is often used to add directories to the search path. If this environment variable is found then the contents are added to the module search path.

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PYTHONPATH will affect all installed Python versions/environments. Be wary of setting this in your shell profile or global environment variables. The site module offers more nuanced techniques as mentioned below.

The next items added are the directories containing standard Python modules as well as any extension modules that these modules depend on. Extension modules are .pyd files on Windows and .so files on other platforms. The directory with the platform-independent Python modules is called prefix. The directory with the extension modules is called exec_prefix.

The PYTHONHOME environment variable may be used to set the prefix and exec_prefix locations. Otherwise these directories are found by using the Python executable as a starting point and then looking for various ‘landmark’ files and directories. Note that any symbolic links are followed so the real Python executable location is used as the search starting point. The Python executable location is called home.

Once home is determined, the prefix directory is found by first looking for pythonmajorversionminorversion.zip (python311.zip). On Windows the zip archive is searched for in home and on Unix the archive is expected to be in lib. Note that the expected zip archive location is added to the module search path even if the archive does not exist. If no archive was found, Python on Windows will continue the search for prefix by looking for Lib\os.py. Python on Unix will look for lib/pythonmajorversion.minorversion/os.py (lib/python3.11/os.py). On Windows prefix and exec_prefix are the same, however on other platforms lib/pythonmajorversion.minorversion/lib-dynload (lib/python3.11/lib-dynload) is searched for and used as an anchor for exec_prefix. On some platforms lib may be lib64 or another value, see sys.platlibdir and PYTHONPLATLIBDIR.

Once found, prefix and exec_prefix are available at sys.base_prefix and sys.base_exec_prefix respectively.

If PYTHONHOME is not set, and a pyvenv.cfg file is found alongside the main executable, or in its parent directory, sys.prefix and sys.exec_prefix get set to the directory containing pyvenv.cfg, otherwise they are set to the same value as sys.base_prefix and sys.base_exec_prefix, respectively. This is used by Virtual Environments.

Finally, the site module is processed and site-packages directories are added to the module search path. A common way to customize the search path is to create sitecustomize or usercustomize modules as described in the site module documentation.

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Certain command line options may further affect path calculations. See -E, -I, -s and -S for further details.

3.14 sürümünde değişti: sys.prefix and sys.exec_prefix are now set to the pyvenv.cfg directory during the path initialization. This was previously done by site, therefore affected by -S.

Virtual Environments

Virtual environments place a pyvenv.cfg file in their prefix, which causes sys.prefix and sys.exec_prefix to point to them, instead of the base installation.

The prefix and exec_prefix values of the base installation are available at sys.base_prefix and sys.base_exec_prefix.

As well as being used as a marker to identify virtual environments, pyvenv.cfg may also be used to configure the site initialization. Please refer to site’s virtual environments documentation.

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PYTHONHOME overrides the pyvenv.cfg detection.

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There are other ways how “virtual environments” could be implemented, this documentation refers implementations based on the pyvenv.cfg mechanism, such as venv. Most virtual environment implementations follow the model set by venv, but there may be exotic implementations that diverge from it.

_pth files

To completely override sys.path create a ._pth file with the same name as the shared library or executable (python._pth or python311._pth). The shared library path is always known on Windows, however it may not be available on other platforms. In the ._pth file specify one line for each path to add to sys.path. The file based on the shared library name overrides the one based on the executable, which allows paths to be restricted for any program loading the runtime if desired.

When the file exists, all registry and environment variables are ignored, isolated mode is enabled, and site is not imported unless one line in the file specifies import site. Blank paths and lines starting with # are ignored. Each path may be absolute or relative to the location of the file. Import statements other than to site are not permitted, and arbitrary code cannot be specified.

Note that .pth files (without leading underscore) will be processed normally by the site module when import site has been specified.

Embedded Python

If Python is embedded within another application Py_InitializeFromConfig() and the PyConfig structure can be used to initialize Python. The path specific details are described at Python Path Configuration.

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