site.getsitepackages() missing

[wichert]

The standard site.getsitepackages() function is not available in a virtualenv:

>>> import site
>>> site.getsitepackages()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'getsitepackages'

[omeinusch]

Do you use Python 2.7? In this case, its a duplicate of #355 .

[wichert]

This was indeed using Python 2.7.

[zed]

site.getsitepackages() works on Python 2.7 and 3.2+ outside a virtualenv and I get the AttributeError inside a virtualenv on both Python 2 and 3 on Ubuntu.

As a workaround: python -c "from distutils.sysconfig import get_python_lib; print(get_python_lib())" manages to find the location of my Python site-packages directory

[piotr-dobrogost]

It would be nice if any of virtualenv's maintainers took a look at this and provide some guidance as to where the problem is…

[pfmoore]

The problem (as I understand it) is that virtualenv implements its own version of site.py that doesn't track the core Python version perfectly (that's the issue behind #355, referenced above - if you follow that link, and the link to the various issues linked from there, you'll get the background).

Fixing this isn't as simple as "sync up to the core site.py", because we need to support multiple Python versions, and site.py has changed between them.

Hope that helps - I'm replying as a virtualenv maintainer offering some guidance, but it's not something I'm planning on working on myself. As usual, patches welcome, but anyone willing to take this on should be clear on the amount of testing effort involved. For example, technically I believe we still support Python 2.6, so do we need to make sure that site.getsitepackages() is unavailable on that version? (IMO, no, we should just drop support for 2.6, but I wish it were that simple 😄)

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Just add a comment if you want to keep it open. Thank you for your contributions.

[maludwig]

I've gotten this issue on Python 3.7.0, Windows 10, in a virtualenv.

As a workaround that seems to be holding, outside of the virtualenv, I did:

python

Python 3.7.0 (v3.7.0:1bf9cc5093, Jun 27 2018, 04:59:51) [MSC v.1914 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import site
>>> site.getsitepackages()
['C:\\Users\\maludwig\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python37', 'C:\\Users\\maludwig\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python37\\lib\\site-packages']

Then I simply edited the site.py in my virtualenv, and added the missing function:

def getsitepackages():
    return ['C:\\Users\\maludwig\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python37', 'C:\\Users\\maludwig\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python37\\lib\\site-packages']

It's a hacky workaround, but hopefully this helps someone else.

[fabiencelier]

Same problem with Windows 10 and Python 3.7
Seems to be caused by pywin32==226

[fwalid08]

I've gotten this issue on Python 3.7.0, Windows 10, in a virtualenv.

As a workaround that seems to be holding, outside of the virtualenv, I did:

python

Python 3.7.0 (v3.7.0:1bf9cc5093, Jun 27 2018, 04:59:51) [MSC v.1914 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import site
>>> site.getsitepackages()
['C:\\Users\\maludwig\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python37', 'C:\\Users\\maludwig\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python37\\lib\\site-packages']

Then I simply edited the site.py in my virtualenv, and added the missing function:

def getsitepackages():
    return ['C:\\Users\\maludwig\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python37', 'C:\\Users\\maludwig\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python37\\lib\\site-packages']

It's a hacky workaround, but hopefully this helps someone else.

It work!s

[yue327]

I've gotten this issue on Python 3.7.0, Windows 10, in a virtualenv.

As a workaround that seems to be holding, outside of the virtualenv, I did:

python

Python 3.7.0 (v3.7.0:1bf9cc5093, Jun 27 2018, 04:59:51) [MSC v.1914 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import site
>>> site.getsitepackages()
['C:\\Users\\maludwig\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python37', 'C:\\Users\\maludwig\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python37\\lib\\site-packages']

Then I simply edited the site.py in my virtualenv, and added the missing function:

def getsitepackages():
    return ['C:\\Users\\maludwig\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python37', 'C:\\Users\\maludwig\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python37\\lib\\site-packages']

It's a hacky workaround, but hopefully this helps someone else.

Dude this is so cool!
you made my day!

[mikemcowie]

I've gotten this issue on Python 3.7.0, Windows 10, in a virtualenv.

As a workaround that seems to be holding, outside of the virtualenv, I did:

python

Python 3.7.0 (v3.7.0:1bf9cc5093, Jun 27 2018, 04:59:51) [MSC v.1914 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import site
>>> site.getsitepackages()
['C:\\Users\\maludwig\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python37', 'C:\\Users\\maludwig\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python37\\lib\\site-packages']

Then I simply edited the site.py in my virtualenv, and added the missing function:

def getsitepackages():
    return ['C:\\Users\\maludwig\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python37', 'C:\\Users\\maludwig\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python37\\lib\\site-packages']

It's a hacky workaround, but hopefully this helps someone else.

@maludwig - Nice.

I'm assuming the reason virtualenv's site.py doesn't include this function is because virtualenv is supposed to keep you deliberately away from using system-wide packages? But if some package explicitly calls this function then it's inevitably going to break when trying to run in a virtualenv?

[voidspace]

I'm seeing this on multiple machines, Windows 10 Python 3.7 and 3.8. It makes virtualenv unusable unfortunately.

[okainov]

Why is this one closed? Seems still reproducible also with Python 3

[gaborbernat]

Can you post a reproducible with latest virtualenv?

[gruszczy]

I am seeing this on Mac, with virtualenv==20.0.34 and when trying to use pyre 0.0.56.

[gruszczy]

Reported also on pyre tracker: facebook/pyre-check#326

[gaborbernat]

Can you post a reproducible with latest virtualenv?

[gaborbernat]

I want to know specifics, how you created the virtualenv, what was the output of the creation (with -vvv?), what host Python you're using?