:mod:`!site` --- Site-specific configuration hook
.. module:: site
:synopsis: Module responsible for site-specific configuration.
Source code: :source:`Lib/site.py`
This module is automatically imported during initialization. The automatic import can be suppressed using the interpreter's :option:`-S` option.
.. index:: triple: module; search; path
Importing this module normally appends site-specific paths to the module search path and adds :ref:`callables <site-consts>`, including :func:`help` to the built-in namespace. However, Python startup option :option:`-S` blocks this and this module can be safely imported with no automatic modifications to the module search path or additions to the builtins. To explicitly trigger the usual site-specific additions, call the :func:`main` function.
.. versionchanged:: 3.3
Importing the module used to trigger paths manipulation even when using
:option:`-S`.
.. index::
pair: site-packages; directory
It starts by constructing up to four directories from a head and a tail part.
For the head part, it uses sys.prefix and sys.exec_prefix; empty heads
are skipped. For the tail part, it uses the empty string and then
:file:`lib/site-packages` (on Windows) or
:file:`lib/python{X.Y[t]}/site-packages` (on Unix and macOS). (The
optional suffix "t" indicates the :term:`free threading` build, and is
appended if "t" is present in the :attr:`sys.abiflags` constant.)
For each
of the distinct head-tail combinations, it sees if it refers to an existing
directory, and if so, adds it to sys.path and also inspects the newly
added path for configuration files.
.. versionchanged:: 3.5
Support for the "site-python" directory has been removed.
.. versionchanged:: 3.13
On Unix, :term:`Free threading <free threading>` Python installations are
identified by the "t" suffix in the version-specific directory name, such as
:file:`lib/python3.13t/`.
If a file named "pyvenv.cfg" exists one directory above sys.executable, sys.prefix and sys.exec_prefix are set to that directory and it is also checked for site-packages (sys.base_prefix and sys.base_exec_prefix will always be the "real" prefixes of the Python installation). If "pyvenv.cfg" (a bootstrap configuration file) contains the key "include-system-site-packages" set to anything other than "true" (case-insensitive), the system-level prefixes will not be searched for site-packages; otherwise they will.
.. index::
single: # (hash); comment
pair: statement; import
A path configuration file is a file whose name has the form :file:`{name}.pth`
and exists in one of the four directories mentioned above; its contents are
additional items (one per line) to be added to sys.path. Non-existing items
are never added to sys.path, and no check is made that the item refers to a
directory rather than a file. No item is added to sys.path more than
once. Blank lines and lines beginning with # are skipped. Lines starting
with import (followed by space or tab) are executed.
Note
An executable line in a :file:`.pth` file is run at every Python startup, regardless of whether a particular module is actually going to be used. Its impact should thus be kept to a minimum. The primary intended purpose of executable lines is to make the corresponding module(s) importable (load 3rd-party import hooks, adjust :envvar:`PATH` etc). Any other initialization is supposed to be done upon a module's actual import, if and when it happens. Limiting a code chunk to a single line is a deliberate measure to discourage putting anything more complex here.
.. versionchanged:: 3.13
The :file:`.pth` files are now decoded by UTF-8 at first and then by the
:term:`locale encoding` if it fails.
.. index::
single: package
triple: path; configuration; file
For example, suppose sys.prefix and sys.exec_prefix are set to
:file:`/usr/local`. The Python X.Y library is then installed in
:file:`/usr/local/lib/python{X.Y}`. Suppose this has
a subdirectory :file:`/usr/local/lib/python{X.Y}/site-packages` with three
subsubdirectories, :file:`foo`, :file:`bar` and :file:`spam`, and two path
configuration files, :file:`foo.pth` and :file:`bar.pth`. Assume
:file:`foo.pth` contains the following:
# foo package configuration
foo
bar
bletch
and :file:`bar.pth` contains:
# bar package configuration
bar
Then the following version-specific directories are added to
sys.path, in this order:
/usr/local/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages/bar
/usr/local/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages/foo
Note that :file:`bletch` is omitted because it doesn't exist; the :file:`bar` directory precedes the :file:`foo` directory because :file:`bar.pth` comes alphabetically before :file:`foo.pth`; and :file:`spam` is omitted because it is not mentioned in either path configuration file.
.. module:: sitecustomize
After these path manipulations, an attempt is made to import a module named
:mod:`sitecustomize`, which can perform arbitrary site-specific customizations.
It is typically created by a system administrator in the site-packages
directory. If this import fails with an :exc:`ImportError` or its subclass
exception, and the exception's :attr:`~ImportError.name`
attribute equals to 'sitecustomize',
it is silently ignored. If Python is started without output streams available, as
with :file:`pythonw.exe` on Windows (which is used by default to start IDLE),
attempted output from :mod:`sitecustomize` is ignored. Any other exception
causes a silent and perhaps mysterious failure of the process.
.. module:: usercustomize
After this, an attempt is made to import a module named :mod:`usercustomize`,
which can perform arbitrary user-specific customizations, if
:data:`~site.ENABLE_USER_SITE` is true. This file is intended to be created in the
user site-packages directory (see below), which is part of sys.path unless
disabled by :option:`-s`. If this import fails with an :exc:`ImportError` or
its subclass exception, and the exception's :attr:`~ImportError.name`
attribute equals to 'usercustomize', it is silently ignored.
Note that for some non-Unix systems, sys.prefix and sys.exec_prefix are
empty, and the path manipulations are skipped; however the import of
:mod:`sitecustomize` and :mod:`usercustomize` is still attempted.
.. currentmodule:: site
On systems that support :mod:`readline`, this module will also import and configure the :mod:`rlcompleter` module, if Python is started in :ref:`interactive mode <tut-interactive>` and without the :option:`-S` option. The default behavior is enable tab-completion and to use :file:`~/.python_history` as the history save file. To disable it, delete (or override) the :data:`sys.__interactivehook__` attribute in your :mod:`sitecustomize` or :mod:`usercustomize` module or your :envvar:`PYTHONSTARTUP` file.
.. versionchanged:: 3.4
Activation of rlcompleter and history was made automatic.
.. data:: PREFIXES
A list of prefixes for site-packages directories.
.. data:: ENABLE_USER_SITE
Flag showing the status of the user site-packages directory. ``True`` means
that it is enabled and was added to ``sys.path``. ``False`` means that it
was disabled by user request (with :option:`-s` or
:envvar:`PYTHONNOUSERSITE`). ``None`` means it was disabled for security
reasons (mismatch between user or group id and effective id) or by an
administrator.
.. data:: USER_SITE
Path to the user site-packages for the running Python. Can be ``None`` if
:func:`getusersitepackages` hasn't been called yet. Default value is
:file:`~/.local/lib/python{X.Y}[t]/site-packages` for UNIX and non-framework
macOS builds, :file:`~/Library/Python/{X.Y}/lib/python/site-packages` for macOS
framework builds, and :file:`{%APPDATA%}\\Python\\Python{XY}\\site-packages`
on Windows. The optional "t" indicates the free-threaded build. This
directory is a site directory, which means that :file:`.pth` files in it
will be processed.
.. data:: USER_BASE
Path to the base directory for the user site-packages. Can be ``None`` if
:func:`getuserbase` hasn't been called yet. Default value is
:file:`~/.local` for UNIX and macOS non-framework builds,
:file:`~/Library/Python/{X.Y}` for macOS framework builds, and
:file:`{%APPDATA%}\\Python` for Windows. This value is used to
compute the installation directories for scripts, data files, Python modules,
etc. for the :ref:`user installation scheme <sysconfig-user-scheme>`.
See also :envvar:`PYTHONUSERBASE`.
.. function:: main()
Adds all the standard site-specific directories to the module search
path. This function is called automatically when this module is imported,
unless the Python interpreter was started with the :option:`-S` flag.
.. versionchanged:: 3.3
This function used to be called unconditionally.
.. function:: addsitedir(sitedir, known_paths=None)
Add a directory to sys.path and process its :file:`.pth` files. Typically
used in :mod:`sitecustomize` or :mod:`usercustomize` (see above).
.. function:: getsitepackages()
Return a list containing all global site-packages directories.
.. versionadded:: 3.2
.. function:: getuserbase()
Return the path of the user base directory, :data:`USER_BASE`. If it is not
initialized yet, this function will also set it, respecting
:envvar:`PYTHONUSERBASE`.
.. versionadded:: 3.2
.. function:: getusersitepackages()
Return the path of the user-specific site-packages directory,
:data:`USER_SITE`. If it is not initialized yet, this function will also set
it, respecting :data:`USER_BASE`. To determine if the user-specific
site-packages was added to ``sys.path`` :data:`ENABLE_USER_SITE` should be
used.
.. versionadded:: 3.2
.. program:: site
The :mod:`site` module also provides a way to get the user directories from the command line:
$ python -m site --user-site
/home/user/.local/lib/python3.11/site-packages
If it is called without arguments, it will print the contents of :data:`sys.path` on the standard output, followed by the value of :data:`USER_BASE` and whether the directory exists, then the same thing for :data:`USER_SITE`, and finally the value of :data:`ENABLE_USER_SITE`.
.. option:: --user-base
Print the path to the user base directory.
.. option:: --user-site
Print the path to the user site-packages directory.
If both options are given, user base and user site will be printed (always in this order), separated by :data:`os.pathsep`.
If any option is given, the script will exit with one of these values: 0 if
the user site-packages directory is enabled, 1 if it was disabled by the
user, 2 if it is disabled for security reasons or by an administrator, and a
value greater than 2 if there is an error.
.. seealso::
* :pep:`370` -- Per user site-packages directory
* :ref:`sys-path-init` -- The initialization of :data:`sys.path`.