PEP: 271 Title: Prefixing sys.path by command line option Author:
Frédéric B. Giacometti <fred@arakne.com> Status: Rejected Type:
Standards Track Content-Type: text/x-rst Created: 15-Aug-2001
Python-Version: 2.2 Post-History:

Abstract

At present, setting the PYTHONPATH environment variable is the only
method for defining additional Python module search directories.

This PEP introduces the '-P' valued option to the python command as an
alternative to PYTHONPATH.

Rationale

On Unix:

    python -P $SOMEVALUE

will be equivalent to:

    env PYTHONPATH=$SOMEVALUE python

On Windows 2K:

    python -P %SOMEVALUE%

will (almost) be equivalent to:

    set __PYTHONPATH=%PYTHONPATH% && set PYTHONPATH=%SOMEVALUE%\
       && python && set PYTHONPATH=%__PYTHONPATH%

Other Information

This option is equivalent to the 'java -classpath' option.

When to use this option

This option is intended to ease and make more robust the use of Python
in test or build scripts, for instance.

Reference Implementation

A patch implementing this is available from SourceForge:

    http://sourceforge.net/tracker/download.php?group_id=5470&atid=305470&file_id=6916&aid=429614

with the patch discussion at:

    http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=305470&aid=429614&group_id=5470

Copyright

This document has been placed in the public domain.