Python 3.x - How to get the directory where user installed package

Question

Suppose that I am building a Python package with the following folder tree:

main
|-- setup.py
|-- the_package
     |--globar_vars.py
     |--the_main_script.py

When the user performs anyway to install it, like:

sudo python setup.py install
python setup.py install --user
python setup.py install --prefix=/usr/local

Or well, using PIP:

pip install 'SomeProject'

I want that the folder where the package was installed be saved on the global_vars.py, in any variable, Eg:

globarl_vars.py
#!/usr/bin/env python3

user_installed_pkg = '/some/path/where/the/package/was/installed'

There is someway to get it? Thanks in advance.

metatoaster · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-13 00:52:07Z

Assuming your SomeProject package is a well-formed Python package (which can be done using setuptools), a user can derive the location simply use the pkg_resources module provided by setuptools package to get this information. For example:

>>> from pkg_resources import working_set
>>> from pkg_resources import Requirement
>>> working_set.find(Requirement.parse('requests'))
requests 2.2.1 (/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages)
>>> working_set.find(Requirement.parse('requests')).location
'/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages'

However, the path returned could be something inside an egg which means it will not be a path directly usable through standard filesystem tools. You generally want to use the Resource manager API to access resources in those cases.

>>> import pkg_resources
>>> api_src = pkg_resources.resource_string('requests', 'api.py')
>>> api_src[:25]
b'# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-\n\n'

Jules Gagnon-Marchand · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-13 00:48:24Z

0

import wtv_module
print(wtv_module.__file__)

import os
print(os.path.dirname(wtv_module.__file__))

answered Sep 13, 2016 at 0:48

Jules Gagnon-Marchand

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2 Comments

Ivan Castro Over a year ago

I was considering this option. However, this way only work when the package is already installed. I mean, your answer just solve the half of the problem. I get the path where the package was installed (great), now it remain to assign that path to the variable into the global_var.py file (which is also already installed).

Ivan Castro Over a year ago

Ok, may be splitting the work could be the solution ;)

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