Is it possible to use a module without installing it on your computer?

Question

For example, my college doesn't give students administrator privileges so I'm unable to install selenium webdriver. The python code that I typed does not work. Is it possible for me to use selenium without having it installed on the computer? Are there any alternatives? Can I use a usb/thumb drive with selenium in it and have the code run it through that drive?

Answer 1

You're looking for sys.path which will do exactly what you want.

When you try to load a module, Python searches in the current directory for a module with that name. If it doesn't find something there, it searches other places in some order and if it isn't found anywhere it is allowed to look, it'll raise an ImportError. By adding your path to the folder on your USB where you have a version of the module, it should work.

import sys
sys.path.append("/path/to/your/folder")

import selenium

You can also print sys.path to see in which directories Python searches for modules.

Answer 2

Beside modification sys.path in a script, you can use PYTHONPATH environment variable. According to The Module Search Path in documentation:

sys.path is initialized from these locations:

• the directory containing the input script (or the current directory).
• PYTHONPATH (a list of directory names, with the same syntax as the shell variable PATH).
• the installation-dependent default.

On Windows for example:

set PYTHONPATH=c:\path\to\modules;d:\another\path
python script.py

On Linux for example:

export PYTHONPATH=/path/to/modules:/another/path
./script.py