Python..Tkinter..PYTHONPATH..

[Steven Taschuk]

Quoth q:
> I have a Linux RH8.0 system. I installed Python2.2 from the 8.0 ISO
> updates. I installed the Tcl 8.3.3 from the Tcl site... I also
> installed the tcllib 1.0.
> 
> My goal is to get viewcvs to run. However, when I check to see where
> the system thinks things are, the PYTHONPATH env var is blank.
> 
> echo $PYTHONPATH --> produces nothing....
> 
> So, can anyone tell me what it should say? [...]

This variable is analogous to $PATH; it lists directories in which
the Python import mechanism will search for modules.  The
interpreter supplements this list with some paths it knows itself;
for the complete result, launch the Python interpreter (by typing
'python' at your shell prompt) and type
    import sys
    sys.path

Unlike $JAVA_HOME, for example, $PYTHONPATH does *not* give the
path to the Python installation.

I don't know what viewcvs is, but a typical application does not
require any modification to $PYTHONPATH unless it is installed in
a weird place.  Normally Python modules get installed into, e.g.,
/usr/lib/python2.2/site-packages, which is among the directories
the interpreter uses automatically.

> [...] Can anyone shed any light
> as to how this var is populated, and why it might be blank....? [...]

It is populated like any shell variable.  It should be blank when
the interpreter's default paths are sufficient.

> [...] Can
> anyone suggest what file I need to alter/should modify to have this
> properly set whenever a user logs into the system....?

The obvious places are /etc/profile and ~/.bashrc, as appropriate.

... but none of this seems obviously relevant to your objective.
Is viewcvs not working?  If not, what is the problem?

-- 
Steven Taschuk                           staschuk at telusplanet.net
"I'm always serious, never more so than when I'm being flippant."
                            -- _Look to Windward_, Iain M. Banks