Programmatically determine pip 'user install' location Scripts directory

Question

As explained in pip\'s documentation a user can install packages in his personal account using pip install --user .

How can I programmatical

Answer 1

Command-line:

python -c "import os, site; print(os.path.join(site.USER_BASE, 'Scripts' if os.name == 'nt' else 'bin'))"

Function:

import os, site

if os.name == 'nt':
    bin_dir = 'Scripts'
else:
    bin_dir = 'bin'

def get_user_install_bin_dir():
    return os.path.join(site.USER_BASE, bin_dir)

Answer 2

I believe the following should give the expected result

import os
import sysconfig

user_scripts_path = sysconfig.get_path('scripts', f'{os.name}_user')
print(user_scripts_path)

But it might be that pip uses a different logic internally (probably based on distutils), but the results should still be the same.

References

• https://docs.python.org/3/library/sysconfig.html#installation-paths
• https://docs.python.org/3/library/os.html#os.name