What directory does chocolatey install commands to?

Question

I've successfully done choco install python2 and choco install python3 but I can't see the result on cmd.exe (yes, I reopened non-administrator cmd.exe).

Where does chocolatey install commands to? I'll fix my PATH env-var when I can work out what should be there.

Choclatey's FAQ does not include an answer to this question. I'm more used to homebrew (Mac), and the answer for that is /usr/local/bin/

Runaway

Answer 1

The answer is, it depends :-)

Most package contents will be installed to the chocolatey directory, which you can find at C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib. For example, in the case of python3 you will find the exe in C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\python3\tools.

In addition, you will find a shim exe located at C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin for python. This location is already contained within your path, so you should already have access to it without making any other changes.

Tangent

Additionally, in 0.9.10 (beta at the time of this writing) shows what path items have changed and allows you to refreshenv without leaving and restarting your console. – Beatify

Answer 2

You can run this command for an installed package

choco list --local-only --exact python --trace

Which will have an output like

Chocolatey v0.10.15
 Operating System Version Number: 10.0.18363.0
Initializing global mutex
Waiting on the mutext handle for 2000 milliseconds
Entered mutex to deserialize 'C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\.chocolatey\python.2.7.11\.registry'
Initializing global mutex
Waiting on the mutext handle for 2000 milliseconds
Entered mutex to deserialize 'C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\.chocolatey\python.2.7.11\.files'
python 2.7.11
1 packages installed.

Open the C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\.chocolatey\python.2.7.11\.files and you will see

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<fileSnapshot xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <files>
    <file path="C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\python\python.nupkg" checksum="8217F64EF970491C464DAA20F6BF45F1" />
    <file path="C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\python\python.nuspec" checksum="4F62CF5DD7934CF4C8ED62FE24848C72" />
    <file path="C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\python\tools\chocolateyInstall.ps1" checksum="6EBF6A5BBC8667B7DEE75CA2E0CF2EB4" />
  </files>
</fileSnapshot>

Pointing to C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\python as the installation folder.

Madlin

This is the right answer. Works for every package and every choco version. The other version does not give the correct result (at least on my system) – Pliocene

That's a start, but nothing more convenient for CI/CD? Sometimes paths are needed :/ – Groscr