python - How to add something to PYTHONPATH?

Question

I downloaded a package (called pysolr 2.0.15) to my computer to be used with Haystack. The instructions asks me to add pysolr to my PYTHONPATH.

What exactly does that mean? After extracting the pysolr files, I ran the command python setup.py install and that's about it. What did that do and do I need to do anything else?

Thanks for the help!

Answer 1

The pythonpath tells python were to look for modules, for example you might have written a library that you want to use in several applications and stored it in the path /mylibs/python/ you would then have to add that path to the pythonpath for python to find it.

If you've downloaded a python module or library (I'm not really sure about the naming convention here) and you've just saved it in a random place on your computer, then you have to add it to your pythonpath.

However if you used easy_install or PIP then you dont have to worry.

To add something to the python-path in a *nix system you write:

export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:/<path_to_modules>