How to find python installation directory on Ubuntu

Question

I have just migrated from Windows environment. I have installed Python 3.2 in a separate directory. How can I get the python installation path in Ubuntu shell?

Is there any way I can let the shell know/choose at runtime which python version is to be used for further code execution?

Are there any environment variables and search path kind of things in Ubuntu Linux as well?

Wolfer · Accepted Answer

First question:

which python though its usually /usr/bin/python for the 2.7

Second question:

From a terminal & python2.7: python2.7 yourfile.py.Simailarly for 3.2: python3.2 yourfile.py though 3.2 isn't installed by default. (You can apt-get install python3.2.)

What python yourfile.py will do depends on which alternative is used for your python interpreter. You can change that by issuing update-alternatives python as root (or by using su).

Third question:

Environment variables are shell dependent, though you can write them out with echo $variable and set them with variable=value (from bash). The search path is simply called PATH and you can get yours by typing echo $PATH.

I hope this was helpful.

user1114053 · Answer

For Python2.7
whereis python2.7

For Python3.2
whereis python3.2

For Python 3.8
which python3

or
whereis python3

Dzmitry Koniukhau · Answer

Here is a simple way, run in terminal:

type -a python

or

type -a python3

Thomas15v · Answer

If you want to find the location of a program you can just use whereis <program>.

In your case run:

whereis python2.7
whereis python3.2

For finding every file that apt-get has copied for installation use:

dpkg -S python2.7
dpkg -S python3.2

But maby it is recommend to save it in a textfile, because the output is to large.

dpkg -S python2.7 >log.txt
gedit log.txt

for running .py file with python 3.2

python3.2 <file.py>

How to find python installation directory on Ubuntu

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