Python - add PYTHONPATH during command line module run

I want to run:

python somescript.py somecommand

But, when I run this I need PYTHONPATH to include a certain directory. I can't just add it to my environment variables because the directory I want to add changes based on what project I'm running. Is there a way to alter PYTHONPATH while running a script? Note: I don't even have a PYTHONPATH variable, so I don't need to worry about appending to it vs overriding it during running of this script.


Solution 1:

For Mac/Linux;

PYTHONPATH=/foo/bar/baz python somescript.py somecommand

For Windows, setup a wrapper pythonpath.bat;

@ECHO OFF
setlocal
set PYTHONPATH=%1
python %2 %3
endlocal

and call pythonpath.bat script file like;

pythonpath.bat /foo/bar/baz somescript.py somecommand

Solution 2:

 import sys
 sys.path.append('your certain directory')

Basically sys.path is a list with all the search paths for python modules. It is initialized by the interpreter. The content of PYTHONPATH is automatically added to the end of that list.

Solution 3:

If you are running the command from a POSIX-compliant shell, like bash, you can set the environment variable like this:

PYTHONPATH="/path/to" python somescript.py somecommand

If it's all on one line, the PYTHONPATH environment value applies only to that one command.

$ echo $PYTHONPATH

$ python -c 'import sys;print("/tmp/pydir" in sys.path)'
False
$ PYTHONPATH=/tmp/pydir python -c 'import sys;print("/tmp/pydir" in sys.path)'
True
$ echo $PYTHONPATH