How do I find the location of my Python site-packages directory?

Question

How do I find the location of my site-packages directory?

Answer 1

All the answers (or: the same answer repeated over and over) are inadequate. What you want to do is this:

from setuptools.command.easy_install import easy_install
class easy_install_default(easy_install):
  """ class easy_install had problems with the fist parameter not being
      an instance of Distribution, even though it was. This is due to
      some import-related mess.
      """

  def __init__(self):
    from distutils.dist import Distribution
    dist = Distribution()
    self.distribution = dist
    self.initialize_options()
    self._dry_run = None
    self.verbose = dist.verbose
    self.force = None
    self.help = 0
    self.finalized = 0

e = easy_install_default()
import distutils.errors
try:
  e.finalize_options()
except distutils.errors.DistutilsError:
  pass

print e.install_dir

The final line shows you the installation dir. Works on Ubuntu, whereas the above ones don't. Don't ask me about windows or other dists, but since it's the exact same dir that easy_install uses by default, it's probably correct everywhere where easy_install works (so, everywhere, even macs). Have fun. Note: original code has many swearwords in it.