How do I find the location of my Python site-packages directory?
python
Solution
There are two types of site-packages directories, global and per user.
Global site-packages ("dist-packages") directories are listed in `sys.path` when you run:
python -m site
For a more concise list run `getsitepackages` from the site module in Python code:
python -c 'import site; print(site.getsitepackages())'
Caution: In virtual environments getsitepackages is not available with older versions of `virtualenv`, `sys.path` from above will list the virtualenv's site-packages directory correctly, though. In Python 3, you may use the sysconfig module instead:
python3 -c 'import sysconfig; print(sysconfig.get_paths()["purelib"])'
The per user site-packages directory (PEP 370) is where Python installs your local packages:
python -m site --user-site
If this points to a non-existing directory check the exit status of Python and see `python -m site --help` for explanations.
Hint: Running `pip list --user` or `pip freeze --user` gives you a list of all installed per user site-packages.
Practical Tips
`<package>.__path__` lets you identify the location(s) of a specific package: (details)
$ python -c "import setuptools as _; print(_.__path__)"
['/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/setuptools']
`<module>.__file__` lets you identify the location of a specific module: (difference)
$ python3 -c "import os as _; print(_.__file__)"
/usr/lib/python3.6/os.py
Run `pip show <package>` to show Debian-style package information:
$ pip show pytest
Name: pytest
Version: 3.8.2
Summary: pytest: simple powerful testing with Python
Home-page: https://docs.pytest.org/en/latest/
Author: Holger Krekel, Bruno Oliveira, Ronny Pfannschmidt, Floris Bruynooghe, Brianna Laugher, Florian Bruhin and others
Author-email: None
License: MIT license
Location: /home/peter/.local/lib/python3.4/site-packages
Requires: more-itertools, atomicwrites, setuptools, attrs, pathlib2, six, py, pluggy
Problem
How do I find the location of my `site-packages` directory?