How do I change the default directory that pip installs to?

Question

When I run the commmand

pip install virtualenv

I get:

Installing virtualenv script to /usr/local/share/python

Answer 1

/usr/local/bin is for executable programs. /usr/local/share is to store data that is independent of the architecture.

So, in your case, you are installing by default in /usr/local, where the executable programs live in /usr/local/bin, the arquitecture-independent data lives in /usr/local/share, configuration files live in /usr/local/etc, etc.

You can check Filesystem_Hierarchy_Standard to get an overview on the topic.