5.4.11 PythonPath

Syntax: PythonPath path
Context: server config, virtual host, directory, htaccess
Override: not None
Module: mod_python.c

PythonPath directive sets the PythonPath. The path must be specified in Python list notation, e.g.

PythonPath "['/usr/local/lib/python2.0', '/usr/local/lib/site_python', '/some/other/place']"

The path specified in this directive will replace the path, not add to it. However, because the value of the directive is evaled, to append a directory to the path, one can specify something like

PythonPath "sys.path+['/mydir']"

Mod_python tries to minimize the number of evals associated with the PythonPath directive because evals are slow and can negatively impact performance, especially when the directive is specified in an .htaccess file which gets parsed at every hit. Mod_python will remember the arguments to the PythonPath directive in the un-evaled form, and before evaling the value it will compare it to the remembered value. If the value is the same, no action is taken. Because of this, you should not rely on the directive as a way to restore the pythonpath to some value if your code changes it.

Note that this directive should not be used as a security measure since the Python path is easily manipulated from within the scripts.