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:mod:`site` --- Site-specific configuration hook
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.. module:: site
:synopsis: A standard way to reference site-specific modules.
**This module is automatically imported during initialization.** The automatic
import can be suppressed using the interpreter's :option:`-S` option.
.. index:: triple: module; search; path
Importing this module will append site-specific paths to the module search path.
.. index::
pair: site-python; directory
pair: site-packages; directory
It starts by constructing up to four directories from a head and a tail part.
For the head part, it uses ``sys.prefix`` and ``sys.exec_prefix``; empty heads
are skipped. For the tail part, it uses the empty string and then
:file:`lib/site-packages` (on Windows) or
:file:`lib/python|version|/site-packages` and then :file:`lib/site-python` (on
Unix and Macintosh). For each of the distinct head-tail combinations, it sees
if it refers to an existing directory, and if so, adds it to ``sys.path`` and
also inspects the newly added path for configuration files.
A path configuration file is a file whose name has the form :file:`package.pth`
and exists in one of the four directories mentioned above; its contents are
additional items (one per line) to be added to ``sys.path``. Non-existing items
are never added to ``sys.path``, but no check is made that the item refers to a
directory (rather than a file). No item is added to ``sys.path`` more than
once. Blank lines and lines beginning with ``#`` are skipped. Lines starting
with ``import`` (followed by space or tab) are executed.
.. versionchanged:: 2.6
A space or tab is now required after the import keyword.
.. index::
single: package
triple: path; configuration; file
For example, suppose ``sys.prefix`` and ``sys.exec_prefix`` are set to
:file:`/usr/local`. The Python X.Y library is then installed in
:file:`/usr/local/lib/python{X.Y}` (where only the first three characters of
``sys.version`` are used to form the installation path name). Suppose this has
a subdirectory :file:`/usr/local/lib/python{X.Y}/site-packages` with three
subsubdirectories, :file:`foo`, :file:`bar` and :file:`spam`, and two path
configuration files, :file:`foo.pth` and :file:`bar.pth`. Assume
:file:`foo.pth` contains the following::
# foo package configuration
foo
bar
bletch
and :file:`bar.pth` contains::
# bar package configuration
bar
Then the following directories are added to ``sys.path``, in this order::
/usr/local/lib/python2.3/site-packages/bar
/usr/local/lib/python2.3/site-packages/foo
Note that :file:`bletch` is omitted because it doesn't exist; the :file:`bar`
directory precedes the :file:`foo` directory because :file:`bar.pth` comes
alphabetically before :file:`foo.pth`; and :file:`spam` is omitted because it is
not mentioned in either path configuration file.
.. index:: module: sitecustomize
After these path manipulations, an attempt is made to import a module named
:mod:`sitecustomize`, which can perform arbitrary site-specific customizations.
If this import fails with an :exc:`ImportError` exception, it is silently
ignored.
.. index:: module: sitecustomize
Note that for some non-Unix systems, ``sys.prefix`` and ``sys.exec_prefix`` are
empty, and the path manipulations are skipped; however the import of
:mod:`sitecustomize` is still attempted.