How to install python modules without root access?

In most situations the best solution is to rely on the so-called "user site" location (see the PEP for details) by running:

pip install --user package_name

Below is a more "manual" way from my original answer, you do not need to read it if the above solution works for you.

With easy_install you can do:

easy_install --prefix=$HOME/local package_name

which will install into

$HOME/local/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages

(the 'local' folder is a typical name many people use, but of course you may specify any folder you have permissions to write into).

You will need to manually create

$HOME/local/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages

and add it to your PYTHONPATH environment variable (otherwise easy_install will complain -- btw run the command above once to find the correct value for X.Y).

If you are not using easy_install, look for a prefix option, most install scripts let you specify one.

With pip you can use:

pip install --install-option="--prefix=$HOME/local" package_name

No permissions to access nor install easy_install?

Then, you can create a python virtualenv (https://pypi.python.org/pypi/virtualenv) and install the package from this virtual environment.

Executing 4 commands in the shell will be enough (insert current release like 16.1.0 for X.X.X):

$ curl --location --output virtualenv-X.X.X.tar.gz https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/tarball/X.X.X
$ tar xvfz virtualenv-X.X.X.tar.gz
$ python pypa-virtualenv-YYYYYY/src/virtualenv.py my_new_env
$ . my_new_env/bin/activate
(my_new_env)$ pip install package_name

Source and more info: https://virtualenv.pypa.io/en/latest/installation/

If you have to use a distutils setup.py script, there are some commandline options for forcing an installation destination. See http://docs.python.org/install/index.html#alternate-installation. If this problem repeats, you can setup a distutils configuration file, see http://docs.python.org/install/index.html#inst-config-files.

Setting the PYTHONPATH variable is described in tihos post.

Important question. The server I use (Ubuntu 12.04) had easy_install3 but not pip3. This is how I installed Pip and then other packages to my home folder

1. Asked admin to install Ubuntu package python3-setuptools

2. Installed pip

Like this:

 easy_install3 --prefix=$HOME/.local pip
 mkdir -p $HOME/.local/lib/python3.2/site-packages
 easy_install3 --prefix=$HOME/.local pip

1. Add Pip (and other Python apps to path)

Like this:

PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
echo PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH" > $HOME/.profile

1. Install Python package

like this

pip3 install --user httpie

# test httpie package
http httpbin.org