arcpy (actually arcgisscripting which it wraps) extends a specific version of python. At arcgis 10.0 you need to run with python26. I'd make sure all the versions are matching.
Instead of doing this
C:\> test.py
Do this
C:\> C:\python26\Desktop10.0\python.exe test.py
Then you know it's starting the correct version of python. If that second line works, what's happening is that windows is starting python25, you'll need to do one of these
1) update windows file association for .py files (quick/technical)
2) uninstall python25 & 26 and install from the install disk (still pretty quick, less technical)
I am going to show how you can replicate arcgis' python enviroment using conda and then plug arcpy to it. This enviroment shall be isolated from arcgis' python so whatever changes do to it, it shouldn't affect arcgis.
The first step is to create an enviroment to enable arcpy at. You can do this with anacoda by typing in the anaconda promt:
conda create -n arcpy python=2.7
This will create a new enviroment within anaconda called arcpy.
Next you need the default packages the come with Arcgis' python. To find them open your arcgis program and in the python promt type:
>>> from pip.operations import freeze
>>> packages = freeze.freeze()
>>>for p in packages:
print(p)
cycler==0.10.0
functools32==3.2.3.post2
future==0.15.2
matplotlib==1.5.2
....
Save this to a file and make a note of its name as we are going to use it in the next step. For convienience here I am posting my output. I saved them to a file called arcgis_10.5_req.txt.
NB. please remove the version number for functools32. Also note that the default arcgis' numpy version is 1.9.3.. You might need to change toto 1.10 as conda finds 1.9 to be conflicting with scipy.
Next activate your conda enviroment and using condas' installer, install the before mentioned packages:
conda activate arcpy
conda install --file arcgis_10.5_req.txt
After the procedure completes, open your Arcgis' python directory and site-packages folder (..\Lib\site-packages) should be one *.pth file. Copy that file into your anacondas' arcpy enviroment site-packages folder.
in my machine it was :
C:\Python27\ArcGISx6410.5\Lib\site-packages\DTBGGP64.pth -> D:\Miniconda3\envs\arcpy\Lib\site-packages\DTBGGP64.pth
The *.pth file contains a number of extra folders for python to look for modules or objects.
Alternatively if don't want to copy the .pth file you can at the start of your script add the folders found in the .pth file to the sys.path manualy at each start.
>>> import sys
# or sys.path.append(r'C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\Desktop10.5\bin')
>>> sys.path.append(r'C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\Desktop10.5\bin64')
>>> sys.path.append(r'C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\Desktop10.5\ArcPy')
>>> sys.path.append(r'C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\Desktop10.5\ArcToolBox\Scripts')
Now you should be able to call arcpy from this env:
conda activate arcpy
python
>>> import arpcy
>>> shp = 'my_shapefile.shp'
>>> with arcpy.da.SearchCursor(shp,['OID@','SHAPE@AREA']):
for row in cursor:
print('Feature {} has an Area of {}').format(row[0],row[1])
Feature 0 has an area of 0.13687430446
....
Best Answer
You can execute your scripts by calling the python installation that comes with ArcGIS. In command prompt/powershell type (replace 'my_script.py' with your python script:
Check your path as it might be slightly different.
This will use the correct python version (2.7) and all the modules from ESRI will be available to import (arcpy is one of them).
If you just want to run python for testing in the terminal, open cmd/powershell and type:
Which will open the python prompt >>>