python --path=/path/to/my/module/?

Question

Is it possible to specify directories to search for python imports in the python startup command?

Environment variables are great but the loosely coupled dependency between a binary and required environment variables isn't ideal for my case (a 1-liner is better than a 2 liner for extra foolproofness; I know you can do the 1.5 liner where you put the shell variable assignment as a prefix to the command you're about to execute).

Answer 1

PYTHONPATH environmental variable is used to set sys.path. It is a simple list of strings so you can always use sys.path.append inside your module:

import sys
sys.path.append('/some/very/useful/path')

Note:

It can be particularly useful when combined with os.path.abspath

 import os
 sys.path.append(os.path.join(
 os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__)), 'another/useful/directory'
 ))

• Sridhar Sarnobat: That's an acceptable solution for my hello world samples. Thanks.