try opening up cmd and simply:
where python
By default, this searches your PATH for matches. More precisely:
Description: Displays the location of files that match the search pattern. By default, the search is done along the current directory and in the paths specified by the PATH environment variable.
Most windows python installers modify your PATH so this should find what doing python at the CLI will call.
try opening up cmd and simply:
where python
By default, this searches your PATH for matches. More precisely:
Description: Displays the location of files that match the search pattern. By default, the search is done along the current directory and in the paths specified by the PATH environment variable.
Most windows python installers modify your PATH so this should find what doing python at the CLI will call.
Cross-platform solution using sys.executable
python -c "import sys; print(sys.executable)"
sys.executable
A string giving the absolute path of the executable binary for the Python interpreter, on systems where this makes sense.
Quick Question: How do I view Python's location in command prompt?
How can I find where Python is installed on Windows? - Stack Overflow
How do I find out my PYTHONPATH using Python? - Stack Overflow
python - How to get the PYTHONPATH in shell? - Stack Overflow
How do I add PYTHONPATH inside a Python script?
How do I find where Python installs packages?
How do I set multiple directories in PYTHONPATH?
So I've been having trouble with Python and I want to know which installation I'm using (I have two user profiles on Windows, my old one and the one I made explicitly to code in, and they both have Python installed).
I tried looking it up, but it only led to this madness you see below:
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19043.1348]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\Users\willi>!type python
'!type' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
C:\Users\willi>type python
The system cannot find the file specified.
C:\Users\willi>type Python
The system cannot find the file specified.
C:\Users\willi>Python type
Python: can't open file 'C:\Users\willi\type': [Errno 2] No such file or directory
C:\Users\willi>Python
Python 3.9.6 (tags/v3.9.6:db3ff76, Jun 28 2021, 15:26:21) [MSC v.1929 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> python
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
NameError: name 'python' is not defined
>>> .quit
File "<stdin>", line 1
.quit
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
>>> quit
Use quit() or Ctrl-Z plus Return to exit
>>> quit()
C:\Users\willi>python
Python 3.9.6 (tags/v3.9.6:db3ff76, Jun 28 2021, 15:26:21) [MSC v.1929 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> !type Python
File "<stdin>", line 1
!type Python
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
>>> type
<class 'type'>
>>> type python
File "<stdin>", line 1
type python
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
>>> type Python
File "<stdin>", line 1
type Python
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
>>> type(Python)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
NameError: name 'Python' is not defined
>>>How do I view Python's location in command prompt?
In your Python interpreter, type the following commands:
>>> import os, sys
>>> os.path.dirname(sys.executable)
'C:\\Python25'
Also, you can club all these and use a single line command. Open cmd and enter following command
python -c "import os, sys; print(os.path.dirname(sys.executable))"
If you have Python in your environment variable then you can use the following command in cmd or powershell:
where python
or for Unix enviroment
which python
command line image :

You would probably also want this:
import sys
print(sys.path)
Or as a one liner from the terminal:
python -c "import sys; print('\n'.join(sys.path))"
Caveat: If you have multiple versions of Python installed you should use a corresponding command python2 or python3.
sys.path might include items that aren't specifically in your PYTHONPATH environment variable. To query the variable directly, use:
import os
try:
user_paths = os.environ['PYTHONPATH'].split(os.pathsep)
except KeyError:
user_paths = []
The environment variable PYTHONPATH is actually only added to the list of locations Python searches for modules. You can print out the full list in the terminal like this:
python -c "import sys; print(sys.path)"
Or if want the output in the UNIX directory list style (separated by :) you can do this:
python -c "import sys; print(':'.join(x for x in sys.path if x))"
Which will output something like this:
/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/feedparser-5.1.3-py2.7.egg:/usr/local/lib/ python2.7/dist-packages/stripogram-1.5-py2.7.egg:/home/qiime/lib:/home/debian:/us r/lib/python2.7:/usr/lib/python2.7/plat-linux2:/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-tk:/usr/lib /python2.7/lib-old:/usr/lib/python2.7/lib- dynload:/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist- packages:/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages:/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/PIL:/u sr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gst-0.10:/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gtk-2.0: /usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7
Just write:
just write which python in your terminal and you will see the python path you are using.
First question:
which python though its usually /usr/bin/python for the 2.7
Second question:
From a terminal & python2.7: python2.7 yourfile.py.
Simailarly for 3.2: python3.2 yourfile.py though 3.2 isn't installed by default. (You can apt-get install python3.2.)
What python yourfile.py will do depends on which alternative is used for your python interpreter. You can change that by issuing update-alternatives python as root (or by using su).
Third question:
Environment variables are shell dependent, though you can write them out with echo $variable and set them with variable=value (from bash). The search path is simply called PATH and you can get yours by typing echo $PATH.
I hope this was helpful.
If you want to find the location of a program you can just use whereis <program>.
In your case run:
whereis python2.7
whereis python3.2
For finding every file that apt-get has copied for installation use:
dpkg -S python2.7
dpkg -S python3.2
But maby it is recommend to save it in a textfile, because the output is to large.
dpkg -S python2.7 >log.txt
gedit log.txt
for running .py file with python 3.2
python3.2 <file.py>