Python: PYTHONPATH

Question

This should be a very pedestrian question, but how do I go about making it so that everytime I write a new python library, or download one from Github, I can just do:

$ import my_module

or

$ import github_module

without any fuss?

Is there a recommended directory in which to save all my custom or downloaded modules? Just in case: I installed Python3.6 using brew install, because some Youtube video told me that this is the neatest way to do it.

Attempted solutions:

• Appending /path/to/my_module to sys.path every time. Sort of works, but not neat.
• Tinkering with the ./profile, or ./bash_profile. However, after I saved the session and tried to reopen my terminal again, bash wouldn't recognise any of my commands like jupyter notebook. I did an emergency undo to revert the ./profile file to its original state. Given my lack of knowledge of the Mac OS, I'm wary of messing with these files unless I really know what I'm doing.

Answer 1

I recommend using a python package manager like miniconda; then install packages with

conda install blahblah 

it saves lot of time and pain!

and git sources can be installed using pip, (which also comes with miniconda) like

pip install -e git://git.myproject.org/MyProject.git@master#egg=MyProject

look here