Where does pip install its packages?
Question:
I activated a virtualenv which has pip installed. I did
pip3 install Django==1.8
and Django successfully downloaded. Now, I want to open up the Django folder. Where is the folder located?
Normally it would be in "downloads", but I’m not sure where it would be if I installed it using pip in a virtualenv.
Answers:
pip when used with virtualenv will generally install packages in the path <virtualenv_name>/lib/<python_ver>/site-packages.
For example, I created a test virtualenv named venv_test with Python 2.7, and the django folder is in venv_test/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django.
pip show <package name> will provide the location for Windows and macOS, and I’m guessing any system. 🙂
For example:
> pip show cvxopt
Name: cvxopt
Version: 1.2.0
...
Location: /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages
By default, on Linux, Pip installs packages to /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages.
Using virtualenv or –user during install will change this default location. If you use pip show make sure you are using the right user or else pip may not see the packages you are referencing.
In a Python interpreter or script, you can do
import site
site.getsitepackages() # List of global package locations
and
site.getusersitepackages() # String for user-specific package location
For locations third-party packages (those not in the core Python distribution) are installed to.
On my Homebrew-installed Python on macOS, the former outputs
['/usr/local/Cellar/python/3.7.4/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages'],
which canonicalizes to the same path output by pip show, as mentioned in a previous answer:
$ readlink -f /usr/local/Cellar/python/3.7.4/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages
/usr/local/lib/python3.7/site-packages
Reference: https://docs.python.org/3/library/site.html#site.getsitepackages
pip list -v can be used to list packages’ install locations, introduced in https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/news/#b1-2018-03-31
Show install locations when list command ran with “-v” option. (#979)
>pip list -v
Package Version Location Installer
------------------------ --------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------
alabaster 0.7.12 c:usersmeappdatalocalprogramspythonpython38libsite-packages pip
apipkg 1.5 c:usersmeappdatalocalprogramspythonpython38libsite-packages pip
argcomplete 1.10.3 c:usersmeappdatalocalprogramspythonpython38libsite-packages pip
astroid 2.3.3 c:usersmeappdatalocalprogramspythonpython38libsite-packages pip
...
This feature is introduced in pip 10.0.0b1. On Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic Beaver), pip or pip3 installed with sudo apt install python-pip or sudo apt install python3-pip is 9.0.1 which doesn’t have this feature.
Check https://github.com/pypa/pip/issues/5599 for suitable ways of upgrading pip or pip3.
Easiest way is probably
pip3 -V
This will show you where your pip is installed and therefore where your packages are located.
One can import the package then consult its help
import statsmodels
help(sm)
At the very bottom of the help there is a section FILE that indicates where this package was installed.
This solution was tested with at least matplotlib (3.1.2) and statsmodels (0.11.1) (python 3.8.2).
The safest way is to call pip through the specific python that you are executing. If you run pip show pip directly, it may be calling a different pip than the one that python is calling. Examples:
$ python -m pip show pip
$ python3 -m pip show pip
$ /usr/bin/python -m pip show pip
$ /usr/local/bin/python3 -m pip show pip
Here’s an example showing how they can differ:
$ pip show pip
Location: /usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages
$ python -m pip show pip
Location: /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages
If you have installed packages via pip and are running the code on Windows, the package should be located in one of the following directories:
User Site Packages: C:UsersUSERNAMEAppDataRoamingPythonPythonXXsite-packages
Global Site Packages: C:Program FilesPythonXXLibsite-packages
Note that "USERNAME" and "XX" will depend on your system configuration and the version of Python you are using. Also, if you have installed Python in a different location than the default, the paths may differ.
If you’re not sure where the package is installed, you can open a command prompt and type pip show ‘package-name’. This will show you the installation location of the package.
% python -c "import sysconfig; print(sysconfig.get_path('purelib'))"
/opt/homebrew/lib/python3.11/site-packages
% pip show yt-dlp
Name: yt-dlp
Version: 2023.3.4
Summary: A youtube-dl fork with additional features and patches
Home-page: https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp
Author:
Author-email:
License:
Location: /opt/homebrew/lib/python3.11/site-packages
Requires: brotli, certifi, mutagen, pycryptodomex, websockets
Required-by:
How do I find the location of my Python site-packages directory?
I activated a virtualenv which has pip installed. I did
pip3 install Django==1.8
and Django successfully downloaded. Now, I want to open up the Django folder. Where is the folder located?
Normally it would be in "downloads", but I’m not sure where it would be if I installed it using pip in a virtualenv.
pip when used with virtualenv will generally install packages in the path <virtualenv_name>/lib/<python_ver>/site-packages.
For example, I created a test virtualenv named venv_test with Python 2.7, and the django folder is in venv_test/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django.
pip show <package name> will provide the location for Windows and macOS, and I’m guessing any system. 🙂
For example:
> pip show cvxopt
Name: cvxopt
Version: 1.2.0
...
Location: /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages
By default, on Linux, Pip installs packages to /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages.
Using virtualenv or –user during install will change this default location. If you use pip show make sure you are using the right user or else pip may not see the packages you are referencing.
In a Python interpreter or script, you can do
import site
site.getsitepackages() # List of global package locations
and
site.getusersitepackages() # String for user-specific package location
For locations third-party packages (those not in the core Python distribution) are installed to.
On my Homebrew-installed Python on macOS, the former outputs
['/usr/local/Cellar/python/3.7.4/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages'],
which canonicalizes to the same path output by pip show, as mentioned in a previous answer:
$ readlink -f /usr/local/Cellar/python/3.7.4/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages
/usr/local/lib/python3.7/site-packages
Reference: https://docs.python.org/3/library/site.html#site.getsitepackages
pip list -v can be used to list packages’ install locations, introduced in https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/news/#b1-2018-03-31
Show install locations when list command ran with “-v” option. (#979)
>pip list -v
Package Version Location Installer
------------------------ --------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------
alabaster 0.7.12 c:usersmeappdatalocalprogramspythonpython38libsite-packages pip
apipkg 1.5 c:usersmeappdatalocalprogramspythonpython38libsite-packages pip
argcomplete 1.10.3 c:usersmeappdatalocalprogramspythonpython38libsite-packages pip
astroid 2.3.3 c:usersmeappdatalocalprogramspythonpython38libsite-packages pip
...
This feature is introduced in pip 10.0.0b1. On Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic Beaver), pip or pip3 installed with sudo apt install python-pip or sudo apt install python3-pip is 9.0.1 which doesn’t have this feature.
Check https://github.com/pypa/pip/issues/5599 for suitable ways of upgrading pip or pip3.
Easiest way is probably
pip3 -V
This will show you where your pip is installed and therefore where your packages are located.
One can import the package then consult its help
import statsmodels
help(sm)
At the very bottom of the help there is a section FILE that indicates where this package was installed.
This solution was tested with at least matplotlib (3.1.2) and statsmodels (0.11.1) (python 3.8.2).
The safest way is to call pip through the specific python that you are executing. If you run pip show pip directly, it may be calling a different pip than the one that python is calling. Examples:
$ python -m pip show pip
$ python3 -m pip show pip
$ /usr/bin/python -m pip show pip
$ /usr/local/bin/python3 -m pip show pip
Here’s an example showing how they can differ:
$ pip show pip
Location: /usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages
$ python -m pip show pip
Location: /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages
If you have installed packages via pip and are running the code on Windows, the package should be located in one of the following directories:
User Site Packages: C:UsersUSERNAMEAppDataRoamingPythonPythonXXsite-packages
Global Site Packages: C:Program FilesPythonXXLibsite-packages
Note that "USERNAME" and "XX" will depend on your system configuration and the version of Python you are using. Also, if you have installed Python in a different location than the default, the paths may differ.
If you’re not sure where the package is installed, you can open a command prompt and type pip show ‘package-name’. This will show you the installation location of the package.
% python -c "import sysconfig; print(sysconfig.get_path('purelib'))"
/opt/homebrew/lib/python3.11/site-packages
% pip show yt-dlp
Name: yt-dlp
Version: 2023.3.4
Summary: A youtube-dl fork with additional features and patches
Home-page: https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp
Author:
Author-email:
License:
Location: /opt/homebrew/lib/python3.11/site-packages
Requires: brotli, certifi, mutagen, pycryptodomex, websockets
Required-by:
How do I find the location of my Python site-packages directory?