cpython/Doc/library/sysconfig.rst

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

.. module:: sysconfig
   :synopsis: Python's configuration information
.. moduleauthor:: Tarek Ziade <tarek@ziade.org>
.. sectionauthor:: Tarek Ziade <tarek@ziade.org>
.. versionadded:: 2.7
.. index::
   single: configuration information

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` file and a :file:`python.h`
that are used to build the Python binary itself, but also any C extension
created in a third party project and compiled using :mod:`distutils`.

:mod:`sysconfig` put all variables found in these files in a dictionnary
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, returns 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 platform 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 platform 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.
- *os2*: scheme for OS2 platforms.
- *os2_home*: scheme for OS2 patforms, 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 files.
- *platlib*: directory for the site-specific, platform-specific files.
- *purelib*: directory for the site-specific, non platform-specific files.
- *include*: directory containing the non-platform-specific header files.
- *platinclude*: directory containing the platform-specific header files.
- *scripts*: directory containing the script files.
- *data*: directory containing the data files.

:mod:`sysconfig` provides some functions to read 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 the 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_path_names`. Otherwise, the default scheme for the current
   platform is used.

   If *vars* is provided, it must be a dictionnary of variables that will
   update the dictionnary 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 dictionnary 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 dictionnary of variables that will
   update the dictionnary 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 'os.uname()'),
   although the exact information included depends on the OS; eg. 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 'sys.platform'.


.. function:: is_python_build():

   Returns True if the current Python installation was built from source.


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

   Parse a config.h-style file.

   *fp* is a file-like object pointing to the 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():

   Returns the path of pyconfig.h