Why is the PYTHONPATH different when running Python with and without sudo?

Question

There's something wrong with my OSX system and python that no amount of googling has fixed. I've uninstalled all traces of python except the system python package with OSX that I'm not supposed to uninstall, and then started afresh with a new python from python.org, and installed pip.

Now...not sure if this particular behavior below is part of the issue, but it seems strange to me:

I ran python twice. Once with sudo and once without. Without sudo, I can't access pip. What's going on?

$ sudo /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python
Python 2.7.9 (v2.7.9:648dcafa7e5f, Dec 10 2014, 10:10:46)
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5666) (dot 3)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import pip
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named pip

However...

$ /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python
Python 2.7.9 (v2.7.9:648dcafa7e5f, Dec 10 2014, 10:10:46)
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5666) (dot 3)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import pip
>>>

I've already referred to: sudo python runs old python version

I have nothing in my .bash_profile, or anything in any other profiles.

All I've done is the following:

export PYTHONPATH=/lib/python2.7/site-packages/

ls $PYTHONPATH returns:

_markerlib          pip             pkg_resources.pyc       setuptools-8.0.1.dist-info  virtualenv.pyc
easy_install.py         pip-1.5.6.dist-info     setuptools          virtualenv-1.11.6.dist-info virtualenv_support
easy_install.pyc        pkg_resources.py        setuptools-7.0.dist-info    virtualenv.py

which pip returns:

/bin/pip

tripleee · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-14 07:14:30Z

2

sudo overrides your export. It's the same Python (as you can easily tell from the version information it prints) but it runs with a different (system default) PYTHONPATH.

This is one of the jobs of sudo; it sanitizes the environment to safe defaults. You may be able to tweak this, but the real question is, what are you trying to accomplish? If you need to run as root with a particular environment, set up a virtualenv and/or write a wrapper script which sets things up before dispatching Python.

answered Dec 14, 2014 at 7:14

tripleee

192k37 gold badges318 silver badges367 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

4 Comments

imagineerThat Over a year ago

The following fails to print out the PYTHONPATH as a part of my sys.path: sudo -E bash -c 'python -c "import sys; print sys.path"'

imagineerThat Over a year ago

However, I can see that sudo -E picks up PYTHONPATH as follows: sudo -E bash -c "echo $PYTHONPATH" /lib/python2.7/site-packages/

imagineerThat Over a year ago

Sorry for making 3 comments, but I thought it would be cleanest this way. Basically, I fail to understand why if PYTHONPATH is picked up by sudo -E, why does python not automatically include PYTHONPATH within the sys.path list?

tripleee Over a year ago

Your use of double quotes exposes the current shell's value, not that of the sudo shell. Your current shell will interpolate any variables in double quotes before sudo runs. Use single quotes to see the actual value of the variable within the root shell instance.

BingsF · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-14 07:04:00Z

1

What do you get when you compare the output of which pip and sudo which pip? On my system I get different outputs. If you do, I'm not sure how to fix that, but you could try to force the sudo'd python to look in the correct directory:

import sys
sys.path.insert(0, '/lib/python2.7/site-packages/')

import pip

answered Dec 14, 2014 at 7:04

BingsF

1,32910 silver badges15 bronze badges

1 Comment

imagineerThat Over a year ago

They both point to /bin/pip. Your solution works. Thanks! However, I'm still not sure whether the behavior I described is faulty.

Daniel Chin · Accepted Answer · 2024-09-27 14:10:09Z

0

Fish:

sudo env PYTHONPATH=(echo $PYTHONPATH | tr ' ' ':') (which python)

Bash:

sudo env PYTHONPATH=$(echo $PYTHONPATH) $(which python)

This evaluates the $PYTHONPATH in the current env and inserts it into the env command. Maybe there's a simpler solution.

edited Sep 27, 2024 at 14:10

answered Sep 27, 2024 at 13:57

Daniel Chin

3181 gold badge5 silver badges17 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Why is the PYTHONPATH different when running Python with and without sudo?

3 Answers 3

4 Comments

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

4 Comments

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related