PYTHONPATH on OS X

[mhearne808[insert-at-sign-here]gmail[insert-dot-he]

I'm missing something major here. I'm trying to add a directory to my
python path using the PYTHONPATH environment variable, and it's being
ignored by the Python interactive shell.

Below is a capture of what I did. Note that my newfolder appears
nowhere on the list of directories in sys.path. How do I get Python
to pay attention to my shell variables?

Using bash on OS X 10.4.10.

%:~ user$ echo $PYTHONPATH

%:~ user$ PYTHONPATH=/Users/user/newfolder
%:~ user$ echo $PYTHONPATH
/Users/user/newfolder
%:~ user$ python
Python 2.5.1 (r251:54863, Aug 10 2007, 10:46:58)
[GCC 4.0.1 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 5363)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.['', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/
setuptools-0.7a1dev_r56320-py2.5.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-
packages/ipython1-0.9alpha2-py2.5.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-
packages/SQLAlchemy-0.4.0beta5-py2.5.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/
site-packages/MySQL_python-1.2.2-py2.5-macosx-10.3-i386.egg', '/usr/
local/lib/python25.zip', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5', '/usr/local/lib/
python2.5/plat-darwin', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/plat-mac', '/usr/
local/lib/python2.5/plat-mac/lib-scriptpackages', '/usr/local/lib/
python2.5/lib-tk', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/lib-dynload', '/usr/local/
lib/python2.5/site-packages', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/
PIL']

 

[Diez B. Roggisch]

I'm missing something major here. I'm trying to add a directory to my
python path using the PYTHONPATH environment variable, and it's being
ignored by the Python interactive shell.

Below is a capture of what I did. Note that my newfolder appears
nowhere on the list of directories in sys.path. How do I get Python
to pay attention to my shell variables?

Using bash on OS X 10.4.10.

%:~ user$ echo $PYTHONPATH

%:~ user$ PYTHONPATH=/Users/user/newfolder
%:~ user$ echo $PYTHONPATH
/Users/user/newfolder
%:~ user$ python
Python 2.5.1 (r251:54863, Aug 10 2007, 10:46:58)
[GCC 4.0.1 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 5363)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.['', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/
setuptools-0.7a1dev_r56320-py2.5.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-
packages/ipython1-0.9alpha2-py2.5.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-
packages/SQLAlchemy-0.4.0beta5-py2.5.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/
site-packages/MySQL_python-1.2.2-py2.5-macosx-10.3-i386.egg', '/usr/
local/lib/python25.zip', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5', '/usr/local/lib/
python2.5/plat-darwin', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/plat-mac', '/usr/
local/lib/python2.5/plat-mac/lib-scriptpackages', '/usr/local/lib/
python2.5/lib-tk', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/lib-dynload', '/usr/local/
lib/python2.5/site-packages', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/
PIL']

Use

export PYTHONPATH=....

to pass environment vars to subprocesses.

Basic unix shell knowledge

$ man bash
....
export -p
The supplied names are marked for automatic export to
the envi-
ronment of subsequently executed commands. If the -f
option is
given, the names refer to functions. If no names are
given, or
if the -p option is supplied, a list of all names
that are
exported in this shell is printed. The -n option
causes the
export property to be removed from the named variables.
export
returns an exit status of 0 unless an invalid option is
encoun-
tered, one of the names is not a valid shell variable
name, or
-f is supplied with a name that is not a function.

....


Diez

 

[Anthony]

I'm missing something major here. I'm trying to add a directory to my
python path using the PYTHONPATH environment variable, and it's being
ignored by the Python interactive shell.

Below is a capture of what I did. Note that my newfolder appears
nowhere on the list of directories in sys.path. How do I get Python
to pay attention to my shell variables?

Using bash on OS X 10.4.10.

%:~ user$ echo $PYTHONPATH

%:~ user$ PYTHONPATH=/Users/user/newfolder
%:~ user$ echo $PYTHONPATH
/Users/user/newfolder
%:~ user$ python
Python 2.5.1 (r251:54863, Aug 10 2007, 10:46:58)
[GCC 4.0.1 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 5363)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.>>> import sys
['', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/
setuptools-0.7a1dev_r56320-py2.5.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-
packages/ipython1-0.9alpha2-py2.5.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-
packages/SQLAlchemy-0.4.0beta5-py2.5.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/
site-packages/MySQL_python-1.2.2-py2.5-macosx-10.3-i386.egg', '/usr/
local/lib/python25.zip', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5', '/usr/local/lib/
python2.5/plat-darwin', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/plat-mac', '/usr/
local/lib/python2.5/plat-mac/lib-scriptpackages', '/usr/local/lib/
python2.5/lib-tk', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/lib-dynload', '/usr/local/
lib/python2.5/site-packages', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/
PIL']

Try
export PYTHONPATH=/Users/user/newfolder

Otherwise (without 'export') the variable is defined in the shell but
not passed on when you launch python.

Cheers,
Anthony

 

[Graham Dumpleton]

I'm missing something major here. I'm trying to add a directory to my
python path using the PYTHONPATH environment variable, and it's being
ignored by the Python interactive shell.

Below is a capture of what I did. Note that my newfolder appears
nowhere on the list of directories in sys.path. How do I get Python
to pay attention to my shell variables?

Using bash on OS X 10.4.10.

%:~ user$ echo $PYTHONPATH

%:~ user$ PYTHONPATH=/Users/user/newfolder
%:~ user$ echo $PYTHONPATH
/Users/user/newfolder
%:~ user$ python
Python 2.5.1 (r251:54863, Aug 10 2007, 10:46:58)
[GCC 4.0.1 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 5363)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.>>> import sys
['', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/
setuptools-0.7a1dev_r56320-py2.5.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-
packages/ipython1-0.9alpha2-py2.5.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-
packages/SQLAlchemy-0.4.0beta5-py2.5.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/
site-packages/MySQL_python-1.2.2-py2.5-macosx-10.3-i386.egg', '/usr/
local/lib/python25.zip', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5', '/usr/local/lib/
python2.5/plat-darwin', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/plat-mac', '/usr/
local/lib/python2.5/plat-mac/lib-scriptpackages', '/usr/local/lib/
python2.5/lib-tk', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/lib-dynload', '/usr/local/
lib/python2.5/site-packages', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/
PIL']

You need to export the environment variable.

export PYTHONPATH

Graham

 

[mhearne808[insert-at-sign-here]gmail[insert-dot-he]

I'm missing something major here. I'm trying to add a directory to my
python path using the PYTHONPATH environment variable, and it's being
ignored by the Python interactive shell.

Below is a capture of what I did. Note that my newfolder appears
nowhere on the list of directories in sys.path. How do I get Python
to pay attention to my shell variables?

Using bash on OS X 10.4.10.

%:~ user$ echo $PYTHONPATH

%:~ user$ PYTHONPATH=/Users/user/newfolder
%:~ user$ echo $PYTHONPATH
/Users/user/newfolder
%:~ user$ python
Python 2.5.1 (r251:54863, Aug 10 2007, 10:46:58)
[GCC 4.0.1 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 5363)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.>>> import sys

sys.path

['', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/
setuptools-0.7a1dev_r56320-py2.5.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-
packages/ipython1-0.9alpha2-py2.5.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-
packages/SQLAlchemy-0.4.0beta5-py2.5.egg', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/
site-packages/MySQL_python-1.2.2-py2.5-macosx-10.3-i386.egg', '/usr/
local/lib/python25.zip', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5', '/usr/local/lib/
python2.5/plat-darwin', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/plat-mac', '/usr/
local/lib/python2.5/plat-mac/lib-scriptpackages', '/usr/local/lib/
python2.5/lib-tk', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/lib-dynload', '/usr/local/
lib/python2.5/site-packages', '/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/
PIL']

You need to export the environment variable.

export PYTHONPATH

Graham

Thanks all - I'm recently back to using Unix (Mac) after 5 years of
being on a PC. I guess I thought export was just another way of doing
assignment. My bad.

--Mike