[Python] Order of system-wide locations and virtual environment in `sys.path`

I created a virtual environment using

python -m venv venv


Now I'm opening a Python shell without activating the virtual environment by running

import sys
print(sys.path, sys.prefix)


I get

['', '/usr/lib/python312.zip', '/usr/lib/python3.12', '/usr/lib/python3.12/lib-dynload', '/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages'] /usr


which is exactly what I'm expecting.

While, if I activate the environment, the output is

['', '/usr/lib/python312.zip', '/usr/lib/python3.12', '/usr/lib/python3.12/lib-dynload', '/home/myname/mypath/venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages'] /home/myname/Projects/pypath/venv


What upset me a lot is that even inside the venv it seems that the interpreter is searching packages firstly in the system-wide location, and only then inside the venv directory.

Is this true?

Continue reading...