Question

Where is Python’s sys.path initialized from?

UPD: Python is adding some paths before refering to PYTHONPATH:

    >>> import sys
    >>> from pprint import pprint as p
    >>> p(sys.path)
    ['',
     'C:\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\setuptools-0.6c9-py2.5.egg',
     'C:\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\orbited-0.7.8-py2.5.egg',
     'C:\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\morbid-0.8.6.1-py2.5.egg',
     'C:\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\demjson-1.4-py2.5.egg',
     'C:\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\stomper-0.2.2-py2.5.egg',
     'C:\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\uuid-1.30-py2.5.egg',
     'C:\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\stompservice-0.1.0-py2.5.egg',
     'C:\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\cherrypy-3.0.1-py2.5.egg',
     'C:\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\pyorbited-0.2.2-py2.5.egg',
     'C:\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\flup-1.0.1-py2.5.egg',
     'C:\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\wsgilog-0.1-py2.5.egg',
     'c:\\testdir',
     'C:\\Windows\\system32\\python25.zip',
     'C:\\Python25\\DLLs',
     'C:\\Python25\\lib',
     'C:\\Python25\\lib\\plat-win',
     'C:\\Python25\\lib\\lib-tk',
     'C:\\Python25',
     'C:\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages',
     'C:\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\PIL',
     'C:\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\win32',
     'C:\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\win32\\lib',
     'C:\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\Pythonwin']

My PYTHONPATH is:

    PYTHONPATH=c:\testdir

I wonder where those paths before PYTHONPATH’s ones come from?

Answer 1

“Initialized from the environment variable PYTHONPATH, plus an installation-dependent default”

— http://docs.python.org/library/sys.html#sys.path