PYTHONPATH showing empty in ubuntu 13.04

Question

when i do `echo $PYTHONPATH` it returns nothing..empty line. so what does that mean. Im using python and it's working fine ..so whats the use of pythonpath and what should be the value of this in ubuntu 13.04 `/usr/bin/` or `/usr/lib/` ..or something else and in windows we have python27/source directory where i could put external sources/drivers , where(or equivalent) it is in ubuntu. when I do `user@user$ dpkg -L python2.7` it shows ``` /. /usr /usr/lib /usr/lib/python2.7 /usr/lib/python2.7/lib-dynload /usr/lib/python2.7/lib2to3 /usr/lib/python2.7/lib2to3/fixer_util.py .... /usr/lib/python2.7/lib2to3/Grammar.txt /usr/share /usr/share/doc /usr/share/doc/python2.7 /usr/share/doc/python2.7/NEWS.gz /usr/share/doc/python2.7/README.Debian /usr/share/doc/python2.7/ACKS.gz /usr/share/doc/python2.7/README.gz /usr/share/doc/python2.7/copyright /usr/share/lintian /usr/share/lintian/overrides /usr/share/lintian/overrides/python2.7 /usr/share/applications /usr/share/applications/python2.7.desktop…

Accepted Answer

The variable `PYTHONPATH` that you echo in the terminal is added to the other paths of python. So if you don't have any particular path set in your `.profile` or `.bashrc` file (or locally), the variable will be empty.

To see the path that python uses do in a python shell

```
import sys
print(sys.path)
```

Or as @mgilson suggestes, you can run from terminal

```
python -c 'import sys; print(sys.path)'
```

A note: If you decide to install by hand a package using `python setup.py install --user` you don't need to add `$HOME/.local/lib/pythonX.X/site-packages` to `PYTHONPATH`, as it is already in `sys.path`

PYTHONPATH showing empty in ubuntu 13.04

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