This document is for an old version of Python that is no longer supported. You should upgrade and read the Python documentation for the current stable release.

# 28.14. `site` — Site-specific configuration hook

Source code: Lib/site.py

This module is automatically imported during initialization. The automatic import can be suppressed using the interpreter’s `-S` option.

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

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 `lib/site-packages` (on Windows) or `lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages` and then `lib/site-python` (on Unix and Macintosh). 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.

A path configuration file is a file whose name has the form `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.

Changed in version 2.6: A space or tab is now required after the import keyword.

For example, suppose `sys.prefix` and `sys.exec_prefix` are set to `/usr/local`. The Python X.Y library is then installed in `/usr/local/lib/pythonX.Y`. Suppose this has a subdirectory `/usr/local/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages` with three subsubdirectories, `foo`, `bar` and `spam`, and two path configuration files, `foo.pth` and `bar.pth`. Assume `foo.pth` contains the following:

    # foo package configuration

    foo
    bar
    bletch

and `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 `bletch` is omitted because it doesn’t exist; the `bar` directory precedes the `foo` directory because `bar.pth` comes alphabetically before `foo.pth`; and `spam` is omitted because it is not mentioned in either path configuration file.

After these path manipulations, an attempt is made to import a module named `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 `ImportError` exception, it is silently ignored. If Python is started without output streams available, as with `pythonw.exe` on Windows (which is used by default to start IDLE), attempted output from `sitecustomize` is ignored. Any exception other than `ImportError` causes a silent and perhaps mysterious failure of the process.

After this, an attempt is made to import a module named `usercustomize`, which can perform arbitrary user-specific customizations, if `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 `-s`. An `ImportError` will be 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 `sitecustomize` and `usercustomize` is still attempted.

`site.``PREFIXES`

  A list of prefixes for site-packages directories.

  New in version 2.6.

`site.``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 `-s` or `PYTHONNOUSERSITE`). `None` means it was disabled for security reasons (mismatch between user or group id and effective id) or by an administrator.

  New in version 2.6.

`site.``USER_SITE`

  Path to the user site-packages for the running Python. Can be `None` if `getusersitepackages()` hasn’t been called yet. Default value is `~/.local/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages` for UNIX and non-framework Mac OS X builds, `~/Library/Python/X.Y/lib/python/site-packages` for Mac framework builds, and `%APPDATA%\Python\PythonXY\site-packages` on Windows. This directory is a site directory, which means that `.pth` files in it will be processed.

  New in version 2.6.

`site.``USER_BASE`

  Path to the base directory for the user site-packages. Can be `None` if `getuserbase()` hasn’t been called yet. Default value is `~/.local` for UNIX and Mac OS X non-framework builds, `~/Library/Python/X.Y` for Mac framework builds, and `%APPDATA%\Python` for Windows. This value is used by Distutils to compute the installation directories for scripts, data files, Python modules, etc. for the user installation scheme. See also `PYTHONUSERBASE`.

  New in version 2.6.

`site.``addsitedir`(sitedir, known_paths=None)

  Add a directory to sys.path and process its `.pth` files. Typically used in `sitecustomize` or `usercustomize` (see above).

`site.``getsitepackages`()

  Return a list containing all global site-packages directories (and possibly site-python).

  New in version 2.7.

`site.``getuserbase`()

  Return the path of the user base directory, `USER_BASE`. If it is not initialized yet, this function will also set it, respecting `PYTHONUSERBASE`.

  New in version 2.7.

`site.``getusersitepackages`()

  Return the path of the user-specific site-packages directory, `USER_SITE`. If it is not initialized yet, this function will also set it, respecting `PYTHONNOUSERSITE` and `USER_BASE`.

  New in version 2.7.

The `site` module also provides a way to get the user directories from the command line:

    $ python -m site --user-site
    /home/user/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages

If it is called without arguments, it will print the contents of `sys.path` on the standard output, followed by the value of `USER_BASE` and whether the directory exists, then the same thing for `USER_SITE`, and finally the value of `ENABLE_USER_SITE`.

`--user-base```

  Print the path to the user base directory.

`--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 `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.

See also

PEP 370 – Per user site-packages directory