path: root/Doc/library/sysconfig.rst

:mod:`sysconfig` --- Provide access to Python's configuration information
=========================================================================

.. module:: sysconfig
   :synopsis: Python's configuration information
.. moduleauthor:: Tarek Ziadé <tarek@ziade.org>
.. sectionauthor:: Tarek Ziadé <tarek@ziade.org>

.. index::
   single: configuration information

.. versionadded:: 3.2

**Source code:** :source:`Lib/sysconfig.py`

--------------

The :mod:`sysconfig` module provides access to Python's configuration
information like the list of installation paths and the configuration variables
relevant for the current platform.

Configuration variables
-----------------------

A Python distribution contains a :file:`Makefile` and a :file:`pyconfig.h`
header file that are necessary to build both the Python binary itself and
third-party C extensions compiled using :mod:`distutils`.

:mod:`sysconfig` puts all variables found in these files in a dictionary that
can be accessed using :func:`get_config_vars` or :func:`get_config_var`.

Notice that on Windows, it's a much smaller set.

.. function:: get_config_vars(\*args)

   With no arguments, return a dictionary of all configuration variables
   relevant for the current platform.

   With arguments, return a list of values that result from looking up each
   argument in the configuration variable dictionary.

   For each argument, if the value is not found, return ``None``.


.. function:: get_config_var(name)

   Return the value of a single variable *name*. Equivalent to
   ``get_config_vars().get(name)``.

   If *name* is not found, return ``None``.

Example of usage::

   >>> import sysconfig
   >>> sysconfig.get_config_var('Py_ENABLE_SHARED')
   0
   >>> sysconfig.get_config_var('LIBDIR')
   '/usr/local/lib'
   >>> sysconfig.get_config_vars('AR', 'CXX')
   ['ar', 'g++']


Installation paths
------------------

Python uses an installation scheme that differs depending on the platform and on
the installation options.  These schemes are stored in :mod:`sysconfig` under
unique identifiers based on the value returned by :const:`os.name`.

Every new component that is installed using :mod:`distutils` or a
Distutils-based system will follow the same scheme to copy its file in the right
places.

Python currently supports seven schemes:

- *posix_prefix*: scheme for Posix platforms like Linux or Mac OS X.  This is
  the default scheme used when Python or a component is installed.
- *posix_home*: scheme for Posix platforms used when a *home* option is used
  upon installation.  This scheme is used when a component is installed through
  Distutils with a specific home prefix.
- *posix_user*: scheme for Posix platforms used when a component is installed
  through Distutils and the *user* option is used.  This scheme defines paths
  located under the user home directory.
- *nt*: scheme for NT platforms like Windows.
- *nt_user*: scheme for NT platforms, when the *user* option is used.

Each scheme is itself composed of a series of paths and each path has a unique
identifier.  Python currently uses eight paths:

- *stdlib*: directory containing the standard Python library files that are not
  platform-specific.
- *platstdlib*: directory containing the standard Python library files that are
  platform-specific.
- *platlib*: directory for site-specific, platform-specific files.
- *purelib*: directory for site-specific, non-platform-specific files.
- *include*: directory for non-platform-specific header files.
- *platinclude*: directory for platform-specific header files.
- *scripts*: directory for script files.
- *data*: directory for data files.

:mod:`sysconfig` provides some functions to determine these paths.

.. function:: get_scheme_names()

   Return a tuple containing all schemes currently supported in
   :mod:`sysconfig`.


.. function:: get_path_names()

   Return a tuple containing all path names currently supported in
   :mod:`sysconfig`.


.. function:: get_path(name, [scheme, [vars, [expand]]])

   Return an installation path corresponding to the path *name*, from the
   install scheme named *scheme*.

   *name* has to be a value from the list returned by :func:`get_path_names`.

   :mod:`sysconfig` stores installation paths corresponding to each path name,
   for each platform, with variables to be expanded.  For instance the *stdlib*
   path for the *nt* scheme is: ``{base}/Lib``.

   :func:`get_path` will use the variables returned by :func:`get_config_vars`
   to expand the path.  All variables have default values for each platform so
   one may call this function and get the default value.

   If *scheme* is provided, it must be a value from the list returned by
   :func:`get_scheme_names`.  Otherwise, the default scheme for the current
   platform is used.

   If *vars* is provided, it must be a dictionary of variables that will update
   the dictionary return by :func:`get_config_vars`.

   If *expand* is set to ``False``, the path will not be expanded using the
   variables.

   If *name* is not found, return ``None``.


.. function:: get_paths([scheme, [vars, [expand]]])

   Return a dictionary containing all installation paths corresponding to an
   installation scheme. See :func:`get_path` for more information.

   If *scheme* is not provided, will use the default scheme for the current
   platform.

   If *vars* is provided, it must be a dictionary of variables that will
   update the dictionary used to expand the paths.

   If *expand* is set to False, the paths will not be expanded.

   If *scheme* is not an existing scheme, :func:`get_paths` will raise a
   :exc:`KeyError`.


Other functions
---------------

.. function:: get_python_version()

   Return the ``MAJOR.MINOR`` Python version number as a string.  Similar to
   ``sys.version[:3]``.


.. function:: get_platform()

   Return a string that identifies the current platform.

   This is used mainly to distinguish platform-specific build directories and
   platform-specific built distributions.  Typically includes the OS name and
   version and the architecture (as supplied by :func:`os.uname`), although the
   exact information included depends on the OS; e.g. for IRIX the architecture
   isn't particularly important (IRIX only runs on SGI hardware), but for Linux
   the kernel version isn't particularly important.

   Examples of returned values:

   - linux-i586
   - linux-alpha (?)
   - solaris-2.6-sun4u
   - irix-5.3
   - irix64-6.2

   Windows will return one of:

   - win-amd64 (64bit Windows on AMD64 (aka x86_64, Intel64, EM64T, etc)
   - win-ia64 (64bit Windows on Itanium)
   - win32 (all others - specifically, sys.platform is returned)

   Mac OS X can return:

   - macosx-10.6-ppc
   - macosx-10.4-ppc64
   - macosx-10.3-i386
   - macosx-10.4-fat

   For other non-POSIX platforms, currently just returns :data:`sys.platform`.


.. function:: is_python_build()

   Return ``True`` if the current Python installation was built from source.


.. function:: parse_config_h(fp[, vars])

   Parse a :file:`config.h`\-style file.

   *fp* is a file-like object pointing to the :file:`config.h`\-like file.

   A dictionary containing name/value pairs is returned.  If an optional
   dictionary is passed in as the second argument, it is used instead of a new
   dictionary, and updated with the values read in the file.


.. function:: get_config_h_filename()

   Return the path of :file:`pyconfig.h`.

.. function:: get_makefile_filename()

   Return the path of :file:`Makefile`.

Using :mod:`sysconfig` as a script
----------------------------------

You can use :mod:`sysconfig` as a script with Python's *-m* option::

    $ python -m sysconfig
    Platform: "macosx-10.4-i386"
    Python version: "3.2"
    Current installation scheme: "posix_prefix"

    Paths:
            data = "/usr/local"
            include = "/Users/tarek/Dev/svn.python.org/py3k/Include"
            platinclude = "."
            platlib = "/usr/local/lib/python3.2/site-packages"
            platstdlib = "/usr/local/lib/python3.2"
            purelib = "/usr/local/lib/python3.2/site-packages"
            scripts = "/usr/local/bin"
            stdlib = "/usr/local/lib/python3.2"

    Variables:
            AC_APPLE_UNIVERSAL_BUILD = "0"
            AIX_GENUINE_CPLUSPLUS = "0"
            AR = "ar"
            ARFLAGS = "rc"
            ASDLGEN = "./Parser/asdl_c.py"
            ...

This call will print in the standard output the information returned by
:func:`get_platform`, :func:`get_python_version`, :func:`get_path` and
:func:`get_config_vars`.