理解site，site-packages in Python

• site module

  document source code

  site.py as a module is automatically imported during initialization.

  The automatic import can be supressed using the interpreter’s -S option.

  Importing this module will append site-specific paths to the module search path and add a few builtins.

• site-packages

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

  1. Global site-packages directories are listed in sys.path when you run

     A directory in sys.path. In contrast to ordinary directories the pth files in the directory are processed, too.

     python -m site
     

     For a more concise list run getsitepackages from the site module in Python code:

     python -c "import site; print(site.getsitepackages())"
     python3 -c 'import sysconfig; print(sysconfig.get_paths()["purelib"])'
     

     关于python -c参见：

     《理解python -c||python -m interpreter run scripts》

     默认路径：

     • Windows prefix\Lib\site-packages
     • Unix(pure) prefix/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages
     • Unix(non-pure) exec-prefix/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages

  2. The per user site-packages directory (PEP 370) is where Python installs your local packages

     A site directory inside the user’s home directory.

     A user site directory is specific to a Python version. The path contains the verison number(major and minor only)

     python -m site --user-site
     

     pip list --user list all installed per user site-packages.

     • Unix ~/.local/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages
     • Windows %APPDATA%/Python/Python26/site-packages

  site-packages is the location where 3rd party packages are installed.(On Linux you have to be root to write to it)

  pure means that the module uses only Python code.

  Non-pure can contain C/C++ code as well.

• References

1. What are site-packages in python and can you install/use them if you aren’t root?
2. How do I find the location of my Python site-packages directory?
3. What is python’s site-packages directory?
4. Installing Python Modules (Legacy version)