Re: Pip installs to unexpected place

Peter J. Holzer wrote:

On 2025-04-18 13:08:36 -0400, Thomas Passin via Python-list wrote:

...

When the system launches its application the PYTHONPATH will start with
system site directories; local user site directories will be on the
PYTHONPATH but since they come later, the python will use PyQt6 v6.8.3
because that will come first on the path.  No crash here.
 
If the user has a program that actually does require the use of v6.9.0, he's
going to have to make sure that the user's local site directories come first
on the path. One way to do that is to set the PYTHONPATH to point to the
user's location.

>
This is IMHO not practical. The user would have to set PYTHONPATH for
some programs, but not for others. You can't do this with .bashrc (or
similar), the user would have to write a wrapper script for each of
their programs which depend on something in ~/.local. Possible of course
but cumbersome.

  currently in my .bashrc i have it set up to look for which
directory the terminal is in and then runs the activate script
for that environment.  i like to keep my desktops/projects
open with various numbers of terminals available so this way
they are all ready to go when the system boots up.

I like Oscar's suggestion that Python scripts provided by the
distribution include -s in the shebang much better.
>
Or - what I tend to do - simply use a virtual environment for each
script that needs a package that the system doesn't provide. But of
course that's basically "disable/don't use .local" and all those venvs
take space and need to be maintained.

  i like that they do not change until i specificly ask them to
be changed.


...

The only one I can think of is for the user, with the help of sudo, or
by editing some system-enabled script, were to change the global
PYTHONPATH.  That seems a stretch.

>
No, there doesn't have to be a global (in the sense that it applies to
all users) PYTHONPATH for that to happen. You just need a PYTHONPATH
that is set for all processes of that user - which the user can
certainly set without sudo (usually by editing .bashrc or maybe using
their desktop environment's settings dialog).

  yes, that is part of what .bashrc is for, making sure your
environment variables are set how you'd like them.


  songbird