How can I use a Python script in the command line without cd-ing to its directory Is it the PYTHONPATH

Question

How can I make any use of PYTHONPATH  When I try to run a script in the path the file is not found  When I cd to the directory holding the script the script runs  So what good is the PYTHONPATH     echo  PYTHONPATH   home randy lib python    tree -L 1   home randy lib python    home randy lib python  -- gbmx html py  -- gbmx py  --   init   py  --   pycache    -- scripts  -- yesno py    python gbmx py -h python  can t open file  gbmx py    Errno 2  No such file or directory    cd   home randy lib python    After cd to the file directory it runs       python gbmx py -h usage  gbmx py  -h   -b    Why can I not make any use of the PYTHONPATH

User · Answer

PYTHONPATH only affects import statements  not the top-level Python interpreter s lookup of python files given as arguments   Needing PYTHONPATH to be set is not a great idea - as with anything dependent on environment variables  replicating things consistently across different machines gets tricky  Better is to use Python  packages  which can be installed  using  pip   or distutils  in system-dependent paths which Python already knows about   Have a read of https   the-hitchhikers-guide-to-packaging readthedocs org en latest  -  The Hitchhiker s Guide to Packaging   and also http   docs python org 3 tutorial modules html - which explains PYTHONPATH and packages at a lower level

User · Answer

I think you re a little confused  PYTHONPATH sets the search path for importing python modules  not for executing them like you re trying      PYTHONPATH Augment the default search path for module files  The   format is the same as the shell   s PATH  one or more directory   pathnames separated by os pathsep  e g  colons on Unix or semicolons   on Windows   Non-existent directories are silently ignored       In addition to normal directories  individual PYTHONPATH entries may   refer to zipfiles containing pure Python modules  in either source or   compiled form   Extension modules cannot be imported from zipfiles       The default search path is installation dependent  but generally   begins with prefix lib pythonversion  see PYTHONHOME above   It is   always appended to PYTHONPATH       An additional directory will be inserted in the search path in front   of PYTHONPATH as described above under Interface options  The search   path can be manipulated from within a Python program as the variable   sys path    http   docs python org 2 using cmdline html envvar-PYTHONPATH  What you re looking for is PATH    export PATH  PATH  home randy lib python    However  to run your python script as a program  you also need to set a shebang for Python in the first line  Something like this should work      usr bin env python   And give execution privileges to it   chmod  x  home randy lib python gbmx py   Then you should be able to simply run gmbx py from anywhere

User · Answer

With PYTHONPATH set as in your example  you should be able to do  python -m gmbx   -m option will make Python search for your module in paths Python usually searches modules in  including what you added to PYTHONPATH  When you run interpreter like python gmbx py  it looks for particular file and PYTHONPATH does not apply

User · Answer

I think you re mixed up between PATH and PYTHONPATH  All you have to do to run a  script  is have it s parental directory appended to your PATH variable  You can test this by running  which myscript py   Also  if myscripy py depends on custom modules  their parental directories must also be added to the PYTHONPATH variable  Unfortunately  because the designers of python were clearly on drugs  testing your imports in the repl with the following will not guarantee that your PYTHONPATH is set properly for use in a script  This part of python programming is magic and can t be answered appropriately on stackoverflow    python Python 2 7 8 blahblahblah      gt from mymodule submodule import ClassName  gt test   ClassName    gt  D  myscript that needs mymodule submodule py Traceback  most recent call last     File  myscript that needs mymodule submodule py   line 5  in  lt module gt      from mymodule submodule import ClassName   File   path to myscript that needs mymodule submodule py   line 5  in  lt module gt      from mymodule submodule import ClassName ImportError  No module named submodule

User · Answer

You re confusing PATH and PYTHONPATH  You need to do this   export PATH  PATH  home randy lib python    PYTHONPATH is used by the python interpreter to determine which modules to load    PATH is used by the shell to determine which executables to run

[python] How can I use a Python script in the command line without cd-ing to its directory? Is it the PYTHONPATH?

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