EDIT
When I wrote this back in 2015, there was no documentation on the subject. There is now per the comments, if you wanted to also check that out. There is also a prose explanation of the algorithm in the comments of getpath.py in the code base. I still believe my answer to be relevant and relatively current.
ORIGINAL TEXT FOLLOWS
Python really tries hard to intelligently set sys.path. How it is
set can get really complicated. The following guide is a watered-down,
somewhat-incomplete, somewhat-wrong, but hopefully-useful guide
for the rank-and-file python programmer of what happens when python
figures out what to use as the initial values of sys.path,
sys.executable, sys.exec_prefix, and sys.prefix on a normal
python installation.
First, python does its level best to figure out its actual physical
location on the filesystem based on what the operating system tells
it. If the OS just says "python" is running, it finds itself in $PATH.
It resolves any symbolic links. Once it has done this, the path of
the executable that it finds is used as the value for sys.executable, no ifs,
ands, or buts.
Next, it determines the initial values for sys.exec_prefix and
sys.prefix.
If there is a file called pyvenv.cfg in the same directory as
sys.executable or one directory up, python looks at it. Different
OSes do different things with this file.
One of the values in this config file that python looks for is
the configuration option home = <DIRECTORY>. Python will use this directory instead of the directory containing sys.executable
when it dynamically sets the initial value of sys.prefix later. If the applocal = true setting appears in the
pyvenv.cfg file on Windows, but not the home = <DIRECTORY> setting,
then sys.prefix will be set to the directory containing sys.executable.
Next, the PYTHONHOME environment variable is examined. On Linux and Mac,
sys.prefix and sys.exec_prefix are set to the PYTHONHOME environment variable, if
it exists, superseding any home = <DIRECTORY> setting in pyvenv.cfg. On Windows,
sys.prefix and sys.exec_prefix is set to the PYTHONHOME environment variable,
if it exists, unless a home = <DIRECTORY> setting is present in pyvenv.cfg,
which is used instead.
Otherwise, these sys.prefix and sys.exec_prefix are found by walking backwards
from the location of sys.executable, or the home directory given by pyvenv.cfg if any.
If the file lib/python<version>/dyn-load is found in that directory
or any of its parent directories, that directory is set to be to be
sys.exec_prefix on Linux or Mac. If the file
lib/python<version>/os.py is is found in the directory or any of its
subdirectories, that directory is set to be sys.prefix on Linux,
Mac, and Windows, with sys.exec_prefix set to the same value as
sys.prefix on Windows. This entire step is skipped on Windows if
applocal = true is set. Either the directory of sys.executable is
used or, if home is set in pyvenv.cfg, that is used instead for
the initial value of sys.prefix.
If it can't find these "landmark" files or sys.prefix hasn't been
found yet, then python sets sys.prefix to a "fallback"
value. Linux and Mac, for example, use pre-compiled defaults as the
values of sys.prefix and sys.exec_prefix. Windows waits
until sys.path is fully figured out to set a fallback value for
sys.prefix.
Then, (what you've all been waiting for,) python determines the initial values
that are to be contained in sys.path.
- The directory of the script which python is executing is added to
sys.path.
On Windows, this is always the empty string, which tells python to
use the full path where the script is located instead.
- The contents of PYTHONPATH environment variable, if set, is added to
sys.path, unless you're
on Windows and applocal is set to true in pyvenv.cfg.
- The zip file path, which is
<prefix>/lib/python35.zip on Linux/Mac and
os.path.join(os.dirname(sys.executable), "python.zip") on Windows, is added to sys.path.
- If on Windows and no
applocal = true was set in pyvenv.cfg, then the contents of the subkeys of the registry key
HK_CURRENT_USER\Software\Python\PythonCore\<DLLVersion>\PythonPath\ are added, if any.
- If on Windows and no
applocal = true was set in pyvenv.cfg, and sys.prefix could not be found,
then the core contents of the of the registry key HK_CURRENT_USER\Software\Python\PythonCore\<DLLVersion>\PythonPath\ is added, if it exists;
- If on Windows and no
applocal = true was set in pyvenv.cfg, then the contents of the subkeys of the registry key
HK_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Python\PythonCore\<DLLVersion>\PythonPath\ are added, if any.
- If on Windows and no
applocal = true was set in pyvenv.cfg, and sys.prefix could not be found,
then the core contents of the of the registry key HK_CURRENT_USER\Software\Python\PythonCore\<DLLVersion>\PythonPath\ is added, if it exists;
- If on Windows, and PYTHONPATH was not set, the prefix was not found, and no registry keys were present, then the
relative compile-time value of PYTHONPATH is added; otherwise, this step is ignored.
- Paths in the compile-time macro PYTHONPATH are added relative to the dynamically-found
sys.prefix.
- On Mac and Linux, the value of
sys.exec_prefix is added. On Windows, the directory
which was used (or would have been used) to search dynamically for sys.prefix is
added.
At this stage on Windows, if no prefix was found, then python will try to
determine it by searching all the directories in sys.path for the landmark files,
as it tried to do with the directory of sys.executable previously, until it finds something.
If it doesn't, sys.prefix is left blank.
Finally, after all this, Python loads the site module, which adds stuff yet further to sys.path:
It starts by constructing up to four directories from a head and a
tail part. For the head part, it uses sys.prefix and sys.exec_prefix;
empty heads are skipped. For the tail part, it uses the empty string
and then lib/site-packages (on Windows) or lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages
and then lib/site-python (on Unix and Macintosh). For each of the
distinct head-tail combinations, it sees if it refers to an existing
directory, and if so, adds it to sys.path and also inspects the newly
added path for configuration files.
EDIT: There is no more getpathp.c (link at the beginning on complicated word) since Dec 2021 because implementation was ported to Python: getpath.py
