Search code examples
pythonsys.path

PYTHONPATH variable blank

According to documentation, sys.path is initialized from PYTHONPATH when a Python interpreter session starts. However, in my case, PYTHONPATH variable is empty. When I execute this in a terminal:

echo $PYTHONPATH

it returns blank. On the other hand, when I start the Python REPL and inspect sys.path:

import sys
print (sys.path)

I get back a long list of paths. Where do those get loaded from? What am I missing?

Solution

  • Check the documentation again:

    It says

    [sys.path is initialized] from the environment variable PYTHONPATH, plus an installation-dependent default.

    And furthermore,

    the first item of this list, path[0], is the directory containing the script that was used to invoke the Python interpreter [… or] the empty string

    That’s why yours isn’t empty.