Permanently adding to the Python path in Ubuntu

[Sean DiZazzo]

On Aug 29, 5:39 pm, Chris Colbert <sccolb... at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm having an issue with sys.path on Ubuntu. I want some of my home
> built packages to overshadow the system packages. Namely, I have built
> numpy 1.3.0 from source with atlas support, and I need it to
> overshadow the system numpy 1.2.1 which I had to drag along as a
> dependency for other stuff. I have numpy 1.3.0 installed into
> /usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/. The issue is that this
> directory is added to the path after the
> /usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/ is added, so python doesnt see my
> version of numpy.
>
> I have been combating this with a line in my .bashrc file:
>
> export PYTHONPATH=/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages
>
> So when I start python from the shell, everything works fine.
>
> Problems show up when python is not executed from the shell, and thus
> the path variable is never exported. This can occur when I have
> launcher in the gnome panel or i'm executing from within wing-ide.
>
> Is there a way to fix this so that the local dist-packages is added to
> sys.path before the system directory ALWAYS? I can do this by editing
> site.py but I think it's kind of bad form to do it this way. I feel
> there has to be a way to do this without root privileges.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Chris

I think you can modify sys.path inside your application.

Maybe this will work (at the top of your script):


import sys
sys.path[0] = "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages"

import numpy


PS.  Say hi to Steven for me!

~Sean