Python: PIP install path, what is the correct location for this and other addons?

Question

I have recently had a few problems with my Python installation and as a result I have just reinstalled python and am trying to get all my addons working correctly as well. I’m going to look at virtualenv after to see if I can prevent this from happening again.

When I type which python into terminal I now get

/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python

I understand this to be the correct location and now want to get all the rest of my addons installed correctly as well.

However after installing pip via sudo easy_install pip and type which pip i get

/usr/local/bin/pip

Is this correct? I would have thought it should reflect the below

/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/

There is a folder in here called pip-1.4-py2.7.egg which was not there prior to instillation but the above path does not give me any confidence.

Where should pip and my other addons such as Distribute, Flask and Boto be installed if I want to set this up correctly?

Mac OSX 10.7, Python 2.7

Answer 1

Since pip is an executable and which returns path of executables or filenames in environment. It is correct. Pip module is installed in site-packages but the executable is installed in bin.

Answer 2

Modules go in site-packages and executables go in your system's executable path. For your environment, this path is /usr/local/bin/.

To avoid having to deal with this, simply use easy_install, distribute or pip. These tools know which files need to go where.