Setting PYTHONPATH for compiled QGIS version on Linux

Question

I'm trying to set the PYTHONPATH in order to be able to load the qgis classes in a python console (not the QGIS Python one).

I followed some resources I've found (PYQGIS Cookbook, and others) but I get still the same error message:

>>> import qgis.core
ImportError: No module named qgis.core

I'm pretty sure the problem is that I have a compiled version of QGIS and of course the PATHs suggested are different.

The folder of my QGIS is:

/home/user/QGIS-master

I tried to add the following to the .bashrc file in order to have the PATH but nothing changed (still the error of above):

export PYTHONPATH=/home/user/QGIS-master/python/

Someone has an idea of which is the correct PATH I have to export?

Answer 1

The folder for the PYTHONPATH must be the compiled one and not the source one. Your build path should be something like /home/user/QGIS-master/<builddir>/output/. I am guessing you are running from build your QGIS version so you just export the environment var like:

export PYTHONPATH=/home/user/QGIS-master/<builddir>/output/python/

maybe it also could be necessary to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH (as mentioned in PyQGIS Cookbook).

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/user/QGIS-master/<builddir>/output/lib/