How to Set Path Variable (or Environment Variable) after Installing Python version 3.x(Plain or Anaconda Distribution) in Windows 10
An easy guide to your initial woes after Python installation
Are you a complete newbie in Python (version 3.x) ?
or
May be you are well versed with Python programming but not sure about how to set the path or environment variable for python in Windows 10.
If you fall in either case then relax, take a deep breath we will sort this out. I have been through the same path while starting out in Python.
Let me share my story, when I was doing research on how to get onto python mode in command prompt, I came to know about a term called path variable after installing plain Python or Anaconda distribution.
Well, let us not delve knowing what a path variable is; let just stick to add one for Python.
I have scouted and skimmed the internet space for the same by browsing various articles and videos looking for straight forward answer, but nothing came to my rescue. Information is available, but in a scattered form. So when I found a way, thought of sharing with you all.
Here is what needs to be done:
1. Locate the installation directory of python.exe and package manager (e.g. pip, pip3) folder which is Scripts
2. Copy the path directory of python.exe and Scripts directory.
3. Go to Start Menu →Search for env → you can spot the option under best match Edit the system environment variables select it→ Click on “Environment Variables” (as marked in the Pic 3.2)
or
3. Go to This PC →Right Click and select “Properties” →Advanced system settings (first arrow mark) →Click on “Environment Variables”.
4. Under System variables go to Path →Click on “Edit” →add “New” →paste both the path copied by creating two new environment variable.
5. To ensure everything is done properly, go to “Command Prompt” and type python. If the programs starts running python (as below) then kudos you have successfully created path variable. If not then recheck and perform the step again thoroughly.
You can now type pip install <abcd> and install your python packages.
Как добавить Python в переменную PATH Windows
Часто работает Питон Из Терминала это неизбежно. Однако, если вы впервые установили Python в Windows 10, запуск его через Терминал Windows возможен только в том случае, если он добавлен в переменную среды Windows PATH.
Это может показаться трудным, но бояться нечего. Чтобы помочь вам пройти через все взлеты и падения, связанные с добавлением Python в ваш Windows PATH после его установки, давайте рассмотрим несколько задействованных вариантов и шагов.
Зачем добавлять Python в PATH Windows?
Если вам не удалось добавить Python в PATH в вашей Windows, вы не сможете запустить компилятор Python, запустить виртуальную среду программирования или выполнить такие команды, как пип установить от Терминала.
Это связано с тем, что, когда вы запускаете любое приложение, отличное от заданного по умолчанию, из командной строки, Терминал ищет исполняемый файл в текущей папке или по пути Windows.
Если его нет в переменной PATH, Терминал возвращает ошибку «Не существует«. Добавление в PATH — это мощная команда, поэтому, даже если вы выполняете команду из сгенерированного или пакетного файла по умолчанию, добавление ее основного исполняемого файла в переменную PATH также делает ее вызываемой из Терминала.
Как вручную добавить Python в Windows PATH
Во-первых, если на вашем устройстве не установлен Python, перейдите на сайт python.org Загрузите и установите желаемую версию.
После успешной установки Python на ваш компьютер проверьте, не был ли он уже добавлен в PATH Windows. Откройте Терминал и введите питон , затем нажмите клавишу. Enter. Команда может отображать сообщение об ошибке «‘python’ не распознается как внутренняя или внешняя команда, работающая программа или командный файл», Указывая на то, что Python еще не добавлен в переменную PATH вашего устройства.
Чтобы запускать программы Python из командной строки, выполните следующие действия.
Найдите путь установки Python на вашем компьютере
Чтобы добавить Python в PATH Windows, вам необходимо получить путь его установки. Для этого откройте панель поиска Windows и введите python.exe (не нажимайте клавишу Enter). Затем щелкните правой кнопкой мыши Python.exe, который появляется в появившемся меню, и выберите вариант. местонахождение открытого файла.
В открывшемся окне проводника щелкните длинную панель каталогов слева от строки поиска. Выделите весь текст пути и скопируйте его в буфер обмена с помощью Ctrl + C. Затем перейдите к следующим шагам ниже.
Добавление Python в PATH в пользовательских переменных
Чтобы добавить Python в PATH в пользовательских переменных, щелкните правой кнопкой мыши «Этот компьютер» и выберите ئصائص. Оказавшись в меню свойств, нажмите на опцию Расширенные системные настройки. В следующем окне выберите вкладку Расширенные настройки , и выберите переменные среды.
Список переменных среды состоит из двух отдельных частей: верхней части, называемой пользовательскими переменными, и нижней части, называемой системными переменными. Однако в этом случае мы сосредоточимся на пользовательских переменных.
в списке Пользовательские переменные найдите переменную с именем. Path. Затем вставьте путь, который вы скопировали ранее, в параметр значения переменной, используя Ctrl + V И нажмите Ok.
Однако, если вы не можете найти эту переменную, вам может потребоваться ее создать. Для этого нажмите Новое. Затем в форме имени переменной введите Path и вставьте путь Python в поле значения переменной.
Вернитесь в папку пути установки Python и дважды щелкните Сценарии чтобы открыть этот каталог. Затем скопируйте его путь из панели пути в верхней части окна (рядом с панелью поиска), как вы это делали ранее с путем установки Python.
Как только вы скопируете трек Сценарии , вернитесь к переменным среды. Затем выберите переменную Path и щелкните «Изменить». Введите точку с запятой после пути к исполняемому файлу Python и вставьте путь Сценарии который вы только что скопировали после. Затем нажмите Ok.
Добавление Python в PATH с опцией системных переменных
Вы также можете добавить Python в системные переменные PATH. Хотя это всего лишь альтернатива, и в ней нет необходимости, если вы уже добавили ее в пользовательские переменные.
Чтобы использовать параметр «Системные переменные», выполните описанные выше действия, чтобы скопировать путь Python и его путь к сценариям. Затем вернитесь к переменным среды. Затем в разделе «Системные переменные» найдите переменную с именем Path. Щелкните эту переменную и щелкните Выпуск.
В следующем появившемся окне нажмите New и вставьте путь, который вы скопировали ранее, в открытое пространство. Повторите этот процесс также для пути скриптов. Далее коснитесь Ok И закройте окно переменных среды.
Добавить Python в Windows PATH автоматически
Вы также можете автоматически добавить Python в свой Windows PATH во время установки. Хотя этот метод работает не во всех случаях, вы все же можете попробовать.
Для этого щелкните свой установочный файл и установите флажок «Добавить Python 3.7 в PATH». Номер версии изменится при установке разных версий Python.
Установка этого флажка автоматически добавит Python в ПУТЬ Windows. Это означает, что вы можете запускать команды Python через командную строку сразу после установки.
Убедитесь, что вы добавили Python в свой путь к Windows.
Чтобы узнать, был ли Python уже добавлен в Windows PATH, откройте Терминал и введите python — version, затем нажмите клавишу Enter. Если команда возвращает текущую установленную версию Python, это означает, что вы успешно добавили ее в свой путь Windows.
Однако, чтобы проверить, добавили ли вы путь к сценариям в Windows PATH, попробуйте выполнить команду пакет установки pip в Терминале и замените «пакет» своей любимой библиотекой. Если вы установили Python 2.7.9 и новее, команда устанавливает указанный пакет, указывая, что вы также успешно добавили скрипты Python в путь.
Еще одно приложение, о котором вам следует подумать о добавлении в ваш путь к Windows.
Помимо добавления Python в ваш Windows PATH, вы можете добавить приложения для редактирования текста, интегрированные среды разработки (IDE), Git, Node, Anaconda и многие другие.
Например, управлять проектами с помощью Sublime Text легко, когда вы открываете Терминал в каталоге папки проекта и запускаете команду subl.. Это откроет отредактированную команду в вашей текущей папке и отобразит ее на боковой панели, еще один экономящий время ярлык для продуктивной работы. Sublime Text.
How to Add Python to PATH
You may need to add Python to PATH if you’ve installed Python, but typing python on the command line doesn’t seem to work. You may be getting a message saying that the term python isn’t recognized, or you may end up with the wrong version of Python running.
A common fix for these problems is adding Python to the PATH environment variable. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to add Python to PATH . You’ll also learn about what PATH is and why PATH is vital for programs like the command line to be able to find your Python installation.
Note: A path is the address of a file or folder on your hard drive. The PATH environment variable, also referred to as just PATH or Path, is a list of paths to directories that your operating system keeps and uses to find executable scripts and programs.
The steps that you’ll need to take to add something to PATH will depend significantly on your operating system (OS), so be sure to skip to the relevant section if you’re only interested in this procedure for one OS.
Note that you can use the following steps to add any program to PATH , not just Python.
Supplemental Code: Click here to download free supplemental code that’ll walk you through changing PATH across operating systems.
How to Add Python to PATH on Windows
The first step is to locate the directory in which your target Python executable lives. The path to the directory is what you’ll be adding to the PATH environment variable.
To find the Python executable, you’ll need to look for a file called python.exe . The Python executable could be in a directory in C:\Python\ or in your AppData\ folder, for instance. If the executable were in AppData\ , then the path would typically look something like this:
In your case, the <USER> part would be replaced by your currently logged-in user name.
Once you’ve found the executable, make sure it works by double-clicking it and verifying that it starts up a Python REPL in a new window.
If you’re struggling to find the right executable, you can use Windows Explorer’s search feature. The issue with the built-in search is that it’s painfully slow. To perform a super-fast full system search for any file, a great alternative is Everything:
Those paths highlighted in yellow, namely those at \WindowsApps and \Python310 , would be ideal candidates to add to PATH because they look like executables at the root level of an installation. Those highlighted in red wouldn’t be suitable because some are part of a virtual environment—you can see venv in the path—and some are shortcuts or internal Windows installations.
You may also encounter Python executables that are installed within the folder for a different program. This is due to the fact that many applications bundle their own version of Python within them. These bundled Python installations would also be unsuitable.
Once you’ve located your Python executable, open the Start menu and search for the Edit the system environment variables entry, which opens up a System Properties window. In the Advanced tab, click on the button Environment Variables. There you’ll see User and System variables, which you’ll be able to edit:
In the section entitled User Variables, double-click on the entry that says Path. Another window will pop up showing a list of paths. Click the New button and paste the path to your Python executable there. Once that’s inserted, select your newly added path and click the Move Up button until it’s at the top.
That’s it! You may need to reboot your computer for the changes to take effect, but you should now be able to call python from the command line.
For setting the PATH environment variable from the command line, check out the section on Configuring Environment Variables in the Windows Python coding setup guide. You can also find instructions in the supplemental materials:
Supplemental Code: Click here to download free supplemental code that’ll walk you through changing PATH across operating systems.
You may also want to set up PATH on your Linux or macOS machine, or perhaps you’re using Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). If so, read the next section for the procedure on UNIX-based systems.
How to Add Python to PATH on Linux and macOS
Since Python typically comes pre-installed on UNIX-based systems, the most common problem on Linux and macOS is for the wrong python to run, rather than not finding any python . That said, in this section, you’ll be troubleshooting not being able to run python at all.
Note: Depending on your particular system, you may have a python program for Python 2, and a python3 for Python 3. In other instances, both python and python3 will point to the same executable.
The first step is locating your target Python executable. It should be a program that you can run by first navigating to the containing directory and then typing ./python on the command line.
You need to prepend the call to the Python executable with its relative path in the current folder ( ./ ) because otherwise you’ll invoke whichever Python is currently recorded on your PATH . As you learned earlier, this might not be the Python interpreter that you want to run.
Often the Python executable can be found in the /bin/ folder. But if Python is already in the /bin/ folder, then it’s most likely already on PATH because /bin/ is automatically added by the system. If this is the case, then you may want to skip to the section on the order of paths within PATH .
Since you’re probably here because you’ve installed Python but it’s still not being found when you type python on the command line, though, you’ll want to search for it in another location.
Note: A great search utility for quickly searching large folders is fzf. It works from the command line and will search all files and folders within your current working directory. So you might search for python from your home directory, for instance. fzf will then show you the paths that contain python .
That said, it might be that /bin/ has been removed from PATH altogether, in which case you might skip forward to the section on mangaging PATH .
Once you’ve located your Python executable and are sure it’s working, take note of the path for later. Now it’s time to start the process of adding it to your PATH environment variable.
First, you’ll want to navigate to your home folder to check out what configuration scripts you have available:
You should see a bunch of configuration files that begin with a period ( . ). These are colloquially known as dotfiles and are hidden from ls by default.
One or two dotfiles get executed whenever you log in to your system, another one or two run whenever you start a new command-line session, and most others are used by other applications for configuration settings.
You’re looking for the files that run when you start your system or a new command-line session. They’ll probably have names similar to these:
- .profile
- .bash_profile
- .bash_login
- .zprofile
- .zlogin
The keywords to look for are profile and login. You should, in theory, only have one of these, but if you have more than one, you may need to read the comments in them to figure out which ones run on login. For example, .profile file on Ubuntu will typically have the following comment:
So, if you have .profile but also .bash_profile , then you’ll want to use .bash_profile .
You can also use a .bashrc or .zshrc file, which are scripts that run whenever you start a new command-line session. Run command (rc) files are common places to put PATH configurations.
Note: Pedantically speaking, rc files are generally for settings that affect the look and feel of your command-line prompt, not for configuring environment variables like PATH . But you can use rc files for your PATH configuration if you prefer.
To add the Python path to the beginning of your PATH environment variable, you’re going to be executing a single command on the command line.
Use the following line, replacing <PATH_TO_PYTHON> with your actual path to the Python executable, and replace .profile with the login script for your system:
This command adds export PATH=»<PATH_TO_PYTHON>:$PATH» to the end of .profile . The command export PATH=»<PATH_TO_PYTHON>:$PATH» prepends <PATH_TO_PYTHON> to the PATH environment variable. It’s similar to the following operation in Python:
Since PATH is just a string separated by colons, prepending a value involves creating a string with the new path, a colon, then the old path. With this string, you set the new value of PATH .
To refresh your current command-line session, you can run the following command, replacing .profile with whichever login script you’ve chosen:
Now, you should be able to call python from the command line directly. The next time you log in, Python should automatically be added to PATH .
If you’re thinking this process seems a bit opaque, you’re not alone! Read on for more of a deep dive into what’s going on.
Understanding What PATH Is
PATH is an environment variable that contains a list of paths to folders. Each path in PATH is separated by a colon or a semicolon—a colon for UNIX-based systems and a semicolon for Windows. It’s like a Python variable with a long string as its value. The difference is that PATH is a variable accessible by almost all programs.
Programs like the command line use the PATH environment variable to find executables. For example, whenever you type the name of a program into the command line, the command line will search various places for the program. One of the places that the command line searches is PATH .
All the paths in PATH need to be directories—they shouldn’t be files or executables directly. Programs that use PATH take each directory in turn and search all the files within it. Subdirectories within directories in PATH don’t get searched, though. So it’s no good just adding your root path to PATH !
It’s also important to note that programs that use PATH typically don’t search for anything except executables. So, you can’t use PATH as a way to define shortcuts to commonly used files.
Understanding the Importance of Order Within PATH
If you type python into the command line, the command line will look in each folder in the PATH environment variable for a python executable. Once it finds one, it’ll stop searching. This is why you prepend the path to your Python executable to PATH . Having the newly added path first ensures that your system will find this Python executable.
A common issue is having a failed Python installation on your PATH . If the corrupted executable is the first one that the command line comes across, then the command line will try and run that and then abort any further searching. The quick fix for this is just adding your new Python directory before the old Python directory, though you’d probably want to clean your system of the bad Python installation too.
Reordering PATH on Windows is relatively straightforward. You open the GUI control panel and adjust the order using the Move Up and Move Down buttons. If you’re on a UNIX-based operating system, however, the process is more involved. Read on to learn more.
Managing Your PATH on UNIX-based Systems
Usually, your first task when managing your PATH is to see what’s in there. To see the value of any environment variable in Linux or macOS, you can use the echo command:
Note that the $ symbol is used to tell the command line that the following identifier is a variable. The issue with this command is that it just dumps all the paths on one line, separated by colons. So you might want to take advantage of the tr command to translate colons into newlines:
In this example, you can see that badpython is present in PATH . The ideal course of action would be to perform some PATH archaeology and figure out where it gets added to PATH , but for now, you just want to remove it by adding something to your login script .
Since PATH is a shell string, you don’t have access to convenient methods to remove parts of it, like you would if it were a Python list. That said, you can pipe together a few shell commands to achieve something similar:
This command takes the list from the previous command and feeds it into grep , which, together with the -v switch, will filter out any lines containing the substring badpython . Then you can translate the newlines back to colons, and you have a new and valid PATH string that you use right away to replace your old PATH string.
Though this can be a handy command, the ideal solution would be to figure out where that bad path gets added. You could try looking at other login scripts or examine specific files in /etc/ . In Ubuntu, for instance, there’s a file called environment , which typically defines a starting path for the system. In macOS, that might be /etc/paths . There can also be profile files and folders in /etc/ that might contain startup scripts.
The main difference between configurations in /etc/ and in your home folder is that what’s in /etc/ is system-wide, while whatever’s in your home folder will be scoped to your user.
It can often involve a bit of archeology to track down where something gets added to your PATH , though. So, you may want to add a line in your login or rc script that filters out certain entries from PATH as a quick fix.
Conclusion
In this tutorial, you’ve learned how to add Python, or any other program, to your PATH environment variable on Windows, Linux, and macOS. You also learned a bit more about what PATH is and why its internal order is vital to consider. Finally, you also discovered how you might manage your PATH on a UNIX-based system, seeing as it’s more complex than managing your PATH on Windows.
Supplemental Code: Click here to download free supplemental code that’ll walk you through changing PATH across operating systems.
Как прописать path для python
Python is a great language! However, it doesn’t come pre-installed with Windows. Hence we download it to interpret the Python code which we write. But wait, windows don’t know where you have installed the Python so when trying to any Python code, you will get an error.
We will be using Windows10 and python3 for this article. (Most of the part is same for any other version of either windows or python)
Add Python to Windows Path
First, we need to locate where the python is being installed after downloading it. Press WINDOWS key and search for “Python”, you will get something like this:
If no results appear then Python is not installed on your machine, download it before proceeding further. Click on open file location and you will be in a location where Python is installed, Copy the location path from the top by clicking over it.
Now, we have to add the above-copied path as a variable so that windows can recognize. Search for “Environmental Variables”, you will see something like this:
Now click the “Environmental Variables” button
There will be two categories namely “User” and “System”, we have to add it in Users, click on New button in the User section. Now, add a Variable Name and Path which we copied previously and click OK. That’s it, DONE!
Check if the Environment variable is set or not
Now, after adding the Python to the Environment variable, let’s check if the Python is running anywhere in the windows or not. To do this open CMD and type Python. If the environment variable is set then the Python command will run otherwise not.