PYTHONPATH - collision to aviod

Which OS?

On Unix

set $PYTHONPATH = $PYTHONPATH:your_own_python_path; export $PYTHONPATH

On DOS

set PYTHONPATH = %PYTHONPATH%;your_own_python_path

SS

Refer to this and let me know if any of it is not clear.

Unix

csh:

setenv PYTHONPATH = $PYTHONPATH:/your/own/path

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bash:

export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:/your/own/path

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If you want to set it once for the user and make it permanent, echo the command into the shell rc script.  Any c shell can be substituted for csh, any bourne shell can be substituted for bash.

Windows

set PYTHONPATH=%PYTHONPATH%;x:\your\own\path

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Well, the original question is how can I set PYTHONPATH from inside of application, not touching environment variable.

Any recommendation here?

Hust to be sure Do you really want to change thPYTHONPATH environment variable from a script
(such, that subsequent scripts called with os.system or with sopprocess.popen inherit thius variable.
Or do  you just want to change the search path for the currently active executable?


In the first case you really have to change the environment variable of the currenbtly active python process and thus for all of its child processes in the other it is enough to chaneg sys.path.

The second approach inserts your desired search path first place to search for python modules.
In the example I assume, that you want to have the pythonpath set to the subdirectoryof  where your script is located.




import os, sys
# Determine the directory in which your script is located
script_path = os.path.dirname(__file__)

# now add your subdirectory, where your modules might be located.
my_python_path=os.path.join(script_path, 'mymodules')

# now convert path to an absolute path
my_python_path = os.path.abspath(my_python_path)

# now 'normalize' path
# not really required, buit results in more unified path names
my_python_path = os.path.normpath(my_python_path)


# Now change your 'pythonpath' for the current script only

sys.path.insert(0,my_python_path

# alternatively if you wanted, that your specific path is not searched first, but last you could do
sys.path.append(my_python_path

As gelonida wrote (he should get the points), there is a sys.path variable of the sys module.  It is a Python list of paths that is initialized also from PYTHONPATH environment variable -- see http://docs.python.org/tutorial/modules.html#the-module-search-path for deails.  After the initialization, Python uses only the sys.path internally to search for the modules.  Because of that this is the variable that you probably want to modify directly from inside your script.

You can print it to learn what is inside (here from Windows but it does not matter):

c:\tmp\_Python\longjumps\Q_27314014>python
Python 2.7.2 (default, Jun 12 2011, 14:24:46) [MSC v.1500 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import sys
>>> print sys.path
['', 'C:\\Windows\\system32\\python27.zip', 'c:\\Python27\\DLLs', 'c:\\Python27\\lib', 'c:\\Python27\\lib\\plat-win', 'c:\\Python27\\lib\\lib-tk', 'c:\\Python27', 'c:\\Python27\\lib\\site-packages']
>>>

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The Windows backslash is doubled -- you will see normal slashes in Unix. As the sys.path is a normal list, you can use .append() method to append the path to the end, or the .insert() method to insert your path elsewhere.

You should probably also describe your motivation.  It is not very usual to modify the sys.path or PYTHONPATH if the Python is installed correctly and if all modules were installed correctly.

Actually, I was pointing to the gelonida's http:#36556253 to be accepted ;)