Finding python site-packages directory with CMake

Question

I use CMake to build my application. How can I find where the python site-packages directory is located? I need the path in order to compile an extension to python.

Answer 1

Since CMake 3.12 you can use FindPython module which populates Python_SITELIB and Python_SITEARCH variables for architecture independent and specific libraries, respectively.

Example:

find_package(Python ${PYTHON_VERSION} REQUIRED COMPONENTS Development)
Python_add_library(foo MODULE
    src/foo.cc src/python_interface.cc
)
install(TARGETS foo DESTINATION ${Python_SITEARCH}/foo)