Working with PYTHONPATH environment variables
I have been suffering from a situation where I was not able to import my python module from a custom path.
Let’s take my Python project “nagini” as an example:
When the project path is not added:
The problem is that, when the Python interpreter was importing a module, it searches for all
possible locations defined in the sys.path variable, if not found, an error is raised.
Thus, we just need to create an ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLE named “nagini” and its nagini’s absolute project path, take Windows as an example:
Now let’s open a NEW CMD window and try same thing again:
Succeed! Right?!
For Linux/Unix users
If you want to permanently set your module into the environment variables,
-
Ubuntu, do:
nano ~/.bashrc -
Mac OS, do:
nano ~/.bash_profile
Then add the following line into the file, remember to change the MODULE PATH to yours, the curly brackets need to be removed.
EXPORT PYTHONPATH="{ABSOLUTE PATH TO THE DIR CONTAINS YOUR MODULE}:$PYTHONPATH"
Then save and quit.
To make the change take effect immediately, run this command in the terminal:
source .bash-profile OR source .bashrc
Note:
If you just want to set the environmentable variable temporarily to not mess up your bash profile, let say working
on this module just this time, then just run the following command in your terminal:
EXPORT PYTHONPATH="{ABSOLUTE PATH TO THE DIR CONTAINS YOUR MODULE}:$PYTHONPATH"
