1 files changed, 87 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Doc/library/site.rst b/Doc/library/site.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4e549009f2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Doc/library/site.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,87 @@
+
+:mod:`site` --- Site-specific configuration hook
+================================================
+
+.. module:: site
+   :synopsis: A standard way to reference site-specific modules.
+
+
+**This module is automatically imported during initialization.** The automatic
+import can be suppressed using the interpreter's :option:`-S` option.
+
+.. index:: triple: module; search; path
+
+Importing this module will append site-specific paths to the module search path.
+
+.. index::
+   pair: site-python; directory
+   pair: site-packages; directory
+
+It starts by constructing up to four directories from a head and a tail part.
+For the head part, it uses ``sys.prefix`` and ``sys.exec_prefix``; empty heads
+are skipped.  For the tail part, it uses the empty string and then
+:file:`lib/site-packages` (on Windows) or
+:file:`lib/python|version|/site-packages` and then :file:`lib/site-python` (on
+Unix and Macintosh).  For each of the distinct head-tail combinations, it sees
+if it refers to an existing directory, and if so, adds it to ``sys.path`` and
+also inspects the newly added path for configuration files.
+
+A path configuration file is a file whose name has the form :file:`package.pth`
+and exists in one of the four directories mentioned above; its contents are
+additional items (one per line) to be added to ``sys.path``.  Non-existing items
+are never added to ``sys.path``, but no check is made that the item refers to a
+directory (rather than a file).  No item is added to ``sys.path`` more than
+once.  Blank lines and lines beginning with ``#`` are skipped.  Lines starting
+with ``import`` (followed by space or tab) are executed.
+
+.. versionchanged:: 2.6
+   A space or tab is now required after the import keyword.
+
+.. index::
+   single: package
+   triple: path; configuration; file
+
+For example, suppose ``sys.prefix`` and ``sys.exec_prefix`` are set to
+:file:`/usr/local`.  The Python X.Y library is then installed in
+:file:`/usr/local/lib/python{X.Y}` (where only the first three characters of
+``sys.version`` are used to form the installation path name).  Suppose this has
+a subdirectory :file:`/usr/local/lib/python{X.Y}/site-packages` with three
+subsubdirectories, :file:`foo`, :file:`bar` and :file:`spam`, and two path
+configuration files, :file:`foo.pth` and :file:`bar.pth`.  Assume
+:file:`foo.pth` contains the following::
+
+   # foo package configuration
+
+   foo
+   bar
+   bletch
+
+and :file:`bar.pth` contains::
+
+   # bar package configuration
+
+   bar
+
+Then the following directories are added to ``sys.path``, in this order::
+
+   /usr/local/lib/python2.3/site-packages/bar
+   /usr/local/lib/python2.3/site-packages/foo
+
+Note that :file:`bletch` is omitted because it doesn't exist; the :file:`bar`
+directory precedes the :file:`foo` directory because :file:`bar.pth` comes
+alphabetically before :file:`foo.pth`; and :file:`spam` is omitted because it is
+not mentioned in either path configuration file.
+
+.. index:: module: sitecustomize
+
+After these path manipulations, an attempt is made to import a module named
+:mod:`sitecustomize`, which can perform arbitrary site-specific customizations.
+If this import fails with an :exc:`ImportError` exception, it is silently
+ignored.
+
+.. index:: module: sitecustomize
+
+Note that for some non-Unix systems, ``sys.prefix`` and ``sys.exec_prefix`` are
+empty, and the path manipulations are skipped; however the import of
+:mod:`sitecustomize` is still attempted.
+