Python Tutorials: List of Python Environment Variables

Here are important environment variables, which can be recognized by Python −

Sr.No.Variable & Description
1PYTHONPATHIt has a role similar to PATH. This variable tells the Python interpreter where to locate the module files imported into a program. It should include the Python source library directory and the directories containing Python source code. PYTHONPATH is sometimes preset by the Python installer.
2PYTHONSTARTUPIt contains the path of an initialization file containing Python source code. It is executed every time you start the interpreter. It is named as .pythonrc.py in Unix and it contains commands that load utilities or modify PYTHONPATH.
3PYTHONCASEOKIt is used in Windows to instruct Python to find the first case-insensitive match in an import statement. Set this variable to any value to activate it.
4PYTHONHOMEIt is an alternative module search path. It is usually embedded in the PYTHONSTARTUP or PYTHONPATH directories to make switching module libraries easy.
5PYTHONIOENCODING – Encoding[:errors] used for stdin/stdout/stderr.
6PYTHONFAULTHANDLER – dump the Python traceback on fatal errors.
7PYTHONHASHSEED – if this variable is set to ‘random’, a random value is used
to seed the hashes of str and bytes objects. It can also be set to an
integer in the range [0,4294967295] to get hash values with a
predictable seed.
8PYTHONMALLOC – set the Python memory allocators and/or install debug hooks on Python memory allocators. Use PYTHONMALLOC=debug to install debug hooks.
9 PYTHONCOERCECLOCALE – if this variable is set to 0, it disables the lcale coercion behavior. Use PYTHONCOERCECLOCALE=warn to request display of locale coercion and locale compatibility warnings on stderr.
10PYTHONBREAKPOINT – if this variable is set to 0, it disables the default
debugger. It can be set to the callable of your debugger of choice.
PYTHONDEVMODE: enable the development mode.
11PYTHONPYCACHEPREFIX – root directory for bytecode cache (pyc) files.
Rajesh Kumar
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