Question

My question assumes you are using the same python versions on those different linux distributions. I also exclude virtual environments from my question.

I use the Debian based distribution Ubuntu. There the path to the python standard library (the modules/packages written in python) is /usr/lib/python2.7. The path to “external” python packages is /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages.

A system independent way to get these paths is greatly appreciated.

Edit1

I found:

>>> from distutils.sysconfig import get_python_lib
>>> print get_python_lib()
/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages

and

>>> print get_python_lib(standard_lib=True)
/usr/lib/python2.7

Edit2

I think the approach in the first edit is deprecated since I can only find this up and untill the python2.5 docs. The new approach (in 2.7 docs):

>>> import sysconfig
>>> sysconfig.get_path_names()
('stdlib', 'platstdlib', 'purelib', 'platlib', 'include', 'scripts', 'data')
>>> print sysconfig.get_path('platlib')
/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages

I haven’t found yet how to find /usr/lib/python2.7 with sysconfig. For now I’ll work with the deprecated approach and proceed under the assumption that this yields the desired results.

Answer 1

Yes it’s different, in CentOS 5.6, for example, python external modules are placed in /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages. Actually dist-packages is debian specific directory.