Python - How to find the location of the Python site-packages directory

installationpython

How do I find the location of my site-packages directory?

Best Solution

There are two types of site-packages directories, global and per user.

Global site-packages ("dist-packages") directories are listed in sys.path when you run:
```
python -m site
```
For a more concise list run getsitepackages from the site module in Python code:
```
python -c 'import site; print(site.getsitepackages())'
```
Note: With virtualenvs getsitepackages is not available, sys.path from above will list the virtualenv's site-packages directory correctly, though. In Python 3, you may use the sysconfig module instead:
```
python3 -c 'import sysconfig; print(sysconfig.get_paths()["purelib"])'
```
The per user site-packages directory (PEP 370) is where Python installs your local packages:
```
python -m site --user-site
```
If this points to a non-existing directory check the exit status of Python and see python -m site --help for explanations.

Hint: Running pip list --user or pip freeze --user gives you a list of all installed per user site-packages.

Practical Tips

<package>.__path__ lets you identify the location(s) of a specific package: (details)

$ python -c "import setuptools as _; print(_.__path__)"
['/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/setuptools']

<module>.__file__ lets you identify the location of a specific module: (difference)
```
$ python3 -c "import os as _; print(_.__file__)"
/usr/lib/python3.6/os.py
```

Run pip show <package> to show Debian-style package information:

$ pip show pytest
Name: pytest
Version: 3.8.2
Summary: pytest: simple powerful testing with Python
Home-page: https://docs.pytest.org/en/latest/
Author: Holger Krekel, Bruno Oliveira, Ronny Pfannschmidt, Floris Bruynooghe, Brianna Laugher, Florian Bruhin and others
Author-email: None
License: MIT license
Location: /home/peter/.local/lib/python3.4/site-packages
Requires: more-itertools, atomicwrites, setuptools, attrs, pathlib2, six, py, pluggy

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Python - How to check whether a file exists without exceptions

If the reason you're checking is so you can do something like if file_exists: open_it(), it's safer to use a try around the attempt to open it. Checking and then opening risks the file being deleted or moved or something between when you check and when you try to open it.

If you're not planning to open the file immediately, you can use os.path.isfile

Return True if path is an existing regular file. This follows symbolic links, so both islink() and isfile() can be true for the same path.

import os.path
os.path.isfile(fname)

if you need to be sure it's a file.

Starting with Python 3.4, the pathlib module offers an object-oriented approach (backported to pathlib2 in Python 2.7):

from pathlib import Path
my_file = Path("/path/to/file")
if my_file.is_file():
    # file exists

To check a directory, do:

if my_file.is_dir():
    # directory exists

To check whether a Path object exists independently of whether is it a file or directory, use exists():

if my_file.exists():
    # path exists

You can also use resolve(strict=True) in a try block:

try:
    my_abs_path = my_file.resolve(strict=True)
except FileNotFoundError:
    # doesn't exist
else:
    # exists

Python - How to execute a program or call a system command

Use the subprocess module in the standard library:

import subprocess
subprocess.run(["ls", "-l"])

The advantage of subprocess.run over os.system is that it is more flexible (you can get the stdout, stderr, the "real" status code, better error handling, etc...).

Even the documentation for os.system recommends using subprocess instead:

The subprocess module provides more powerful facilities for spawning new processes and retrieving their results; using that module is preferable to using this function. See the Replacing Older Functions with the subprocess Module section in the subprocess documentation for some helpful recipes.

On Python 3.4 and earlier, use subprocess.call instead of .run:

subprocess.call(["ls", "-l"])

Best Solution

Practical Tips

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