Where does Python search for modules after installing Anaconda?

Question

Previously, I have been using Python 2.7. If I installed a module using pip, it would place the module in /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages. Then, if I were to import that module in a python script, the site-packages directory would be searched to find that module.

However, I want to start using the Anaconda distribution. After downloading this, I notice that there are a number of packages located at /home/karnivaurus/Anaconda/pkgs, for example scikit-learn. Then, in the directory of each packages, there is the directory structure lib/python2.7/site-packages, which contains the modules for that package.

So, it seems that I have now gone from the situation where I only had one site-packages directory, to where I have a number of site-packages directories, one for each package.

My question is: When I create a python script, and want to import a module, how does python know where to look for these modules? Will it look in /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages as well as the site-packages directories that come with Anaconda? What if I want to install another package that does not come with Anaconda -- where should this be installed to?

Thanks!

Answer 1

The paths in which Python will import packages can be seen with the following command:

python -c "import sys; print sys.path"

Please see the documentation, also (as stated in the documentation) if you need to modify the search path, look into PYTHONPATH.