How to find out where the Python include directory is?

Question

I know that after installing Python via Homebrew my include directory is here:

/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.10_2/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/include/python2.7

Is there a way I can make Python tell me where its include/lib directories are? Something along the lines of:

python -c "import sys; print '\n'.join(sys.path)"

score 42 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 20 '18 at 02:58

There must be an easier way to do this from Python, I thought, and there is, in the standard library of course. Use get_paths from sysconfig :

from sysconfig import get_paths
from pprint import pprint

info = get_paths()  # a dictionary of key-paths

# pretty print it for now
pprint(info)
{'data': '/usr/local',
 'include': '/usr/local/include/python2.7',
 'platinclude': '/usr/local/include/python2.7',
 'platlib': '/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages',
 'platstdlib': '/usr/lib/python2.7',
 'purelib': '/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages',
 'scripts': '/usr/local/bin',
 'stdlib': '/usr/lib/python2.7'}

You could also use the -m switch with sysconfig to get the full output of all configuration values.

This should be OS/Python version agnostic, use it anywhere. :-)

When I do this, it shows `'include': '/usr/include/python3.7m'`, but when I try to `cd` to that directory, it says "No such file or directory" — GooDeeJAY, Nov 02 '22 at 17:51

Robᵩ · Answer 2 · 2016-01-28T20:24:09.640

15

On my PC, the command is python-config --includes. Make sure you use the python-config that homebrew installed, not the default one.

edited Jan 28 '16 at 20:24

answered Jan 28 '16 at 20:22

Robᵩ

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It works! Is there an analog for finding Python's lib? – kilojoules Jan 28 '16 at 20:24
2

Try `python-config --help` or `python-config --libs`. – Robᵩ Jan 28 '16 at 20:24
1

Some Python distributions (such as Anaconda) do not come with `python-config`. If `python-config` is used to determine include path name, then it may be pointing to the include path of the python came with your OS. – yoonghm Mar 29 '19 at 01:34

score 14 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 29 '19 at 01:37

My one-line solution is

python -c "from sysconfig import get_paths as gp; print(gp()['include'])"

If you would like to embed the code within a Unix shell (such as bash), you have to use escaped double quotations.

python -c "from sysconfig import get_paths as gp; print(gp()[\"include\"])"

How to find out where the Python include directory is?

3 Answers3

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