Setting python path for WinPython to use f2py

Question

I installed the Winpython distribution on my copy of Windows 7. Launching iPython consoles and other items from the distribution from within the folder it copied to works fine.

I'd like to use the f2py module from numpy to be able to call Fortran subroutines from Python. My understanding is that f2py must be called from the command line, but the system does not seem to find f2py, returning ImportError: no module named site when I call it either with or without flags. This same error is returned when I try to run python itself from the command line.

When I manually navigate to the Winpython directory (e.g. C:\Users\AGK\WinPython-32bit-2.7.5.3\python-2.7.5) and call f2py -c --help-fcompiler to see if f2py is found there, I receive the following error

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File ".\lib\site.py", line 538, in main
    main()
  File ".\lib\site.py", line 530, in main
    known_paths = addusersitepackages(known_paths)
  File ".\lib\site.py", line 266, in addusersitepackages
    user_site = getusersitepackages()
  File ".\lib\site.py", line 241, in getusersitepackages
    user_base = getuserbase() # this will also set USER_BASE
  File ".\lib\site.py", line 231, in getuserbase
    USER_BASE = get_config_var('userbase')
  File "C:\Users\AGK\WinPython-32bit-2.7.5.3\python-2.7.5\lib\sysconfig.py",
 line 516, in get_config_var
    return get_config_vars().get(name)
  File "C:\Users\AGK\WinPython-32bit-2.7.5.3\python-2.7.5\lib\sysconfig.py",
 line 449, in get_config_vars
    import re
  File "C:\Users\AGK\WinPython-32bit-2.7.5.3\python-2.7.5\lib\re.py", line 1
05, in <module>
    import sre_compile
  File "C:\Users\AGK\WinPython-32bit-2.7.5.3\python-2.7.5\lib\sre_parse.py"
", line 14, in <module>
    import sre_parse
  File "C:\Users\AGK\WinPython-32bit-2.7.5.3\python-2.7.5\lib\sre_constants.py",
 line 17, in <module>
    from sre_constants import *
  File "C:\Users\konings\WinPython-32bit-2.7.5.3\pyt
py", line 18, in <module>
    from _sre import MAXREPEAT
ImportError: cannot import name MAXREPEAT

Could somebody explain to me what this error means and/or how to use f2py with Winpython? Thanks!

Answer 1

You can set your environment variable PYTHONPATH pointing to the folder where these modules are. This should solve the ImportErrors.