Small variation on the above patch, using 2 environment variables: PYTHONSITEDIR allows for local site-packages (that override system site packages), and PYTHONNOSYSSITES skips system site-packages for "clean-room" operation (similar to virtual-python.py --no-site- packages).
--- /usr/lib/python2.5/site.py 2008-05-29 22:03:04.000000000 +0100 +++ /tmp/site.py 2008-09-09 19:56:44.000000000 +0100 @@ -167,6 +167,11 @@ def addsitepackages(known_paths): """Add site-packages (and possibly site-python) to sys.path""" + sitedir = os.environ.get('PYTHONSITEDIR') + if sitedir and os.path.isdir(sitedir): + addsitedir(sitedir, known_paths) + if os.environ.get('PYTHONNOSYSSITES'): + return None prefixes = [sys.prefix] if sys.exec_prefix != sys.prefix: prefixes.append(sys.exec_prefix) -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list