What does 'site' in 'site-packages' actually mean?

Question

I've always been a bit curious about the rationale of the naming of site-packages. What does site mean in this context? I doubt it means 'website', and I've never heard 'site' used in relation to the installation location, or the context of the machine.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

It is a good question, and I don't know the answer. But I do have heard "site" as a way to name the combination of OS, installed software and/or physical computer. See for example http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html , where they use the term a lot.

Answer 2

I think site is used to mean the same thing as local, as in /usr/local/* - it's those elements that are installed locally/for this site, as opposed to those that are provided by the system.

Answer 3

I have always understood this as short for on-site - oposite to remote. Probably because those are the packages that are on your machine. That's just my guess, though :)