Python import module from another directory at the same level in project hierarchy

Question

I ve seen all sorts of examples and other similar questions  but I can t seem to find an example that exactly matches my scenario   I feel like a total goon asking this because there are so many similar questions  but I just can t seem to get this working  correctly    Here is my project   user management   package                     -------   init   py                    ------- Modules                                             -----   init   py                      ----- LDAPManager py                      ----- PasswordManager py                    ------- Scripts                                             -----   init   py                      ----- CreateUser py                      ----- FindUser py   If I move  CreateUser py  to the main user management directory  I can easily use   import Modules LDAPManager  to import LDAPManager py --- this works   What I can t do  which I want to do   is keep CreateUser py in the Scripts subfolder  and import LDAPManager py   I was hoping to accomplish this by using  import user management Modules LDAPManager py    This doesn t work   In short  I can get Python files to easily look deeper in the hierarchy  but I can t get a Python script to reference up one directory and down into another   Note that I am able to solve my problem using   sys path append os path join os path dirname   file            import Modules LDAPManager as LDAPManager   I ve heard that this is bad practice and discouraged   The files in Scripts are intended to be executed directly  is the init py in Scripts even necessary     I ve read that in this case  I should be executing CreateUser py with the -m flag   I ve tried some variations on this and just can t seem to get CreateUser py to recognize LDAPManager py

User · Answer

I faced the same issues  To solve this  I used export PYTHONPATH  quot  PWD quot   However  in this case  you will need to modify imports in your Scripts dir depending on the below  Case 1  If you are in the user management dir  your scripts should use this style from Modules import LDAPManager to import module  Case 2  If you are out of the user management 1 level like main  your scripts should use this style from user management Modules import LDAPManager to import modules

User · Answer

From Python 2 5 onwards  you can use   from   Modules import LDAPManager   The leading period takes you  up  a level in your heirarchy   See the Python docs on intra-package references for imports

User · Answer

If I move CreateUser py to the main user management directory  I can   easily use  import Modules LDAPManager to import LDAPManager py   --- this works    Please  don t  In this way the LDAPManager module used by CreateUser will not be the same as the one imported via other imports  This can create problems when you have some global state in the module or during pickling unpickling  Avoid imports that work only because the module happens to be in the same directory   When you have a package structure you should either    Use relative imports  i e if the CreateUser py is in Scripts     from   Modules import LDAPManager   Note that this was  note the past tense  discouraged by PEP 8 only because old versions of python didn t support them very well  but this problem was solved years ago  The current version of PEP 8 does suggest them as an acceptable alternative to absolute imports  I actually like them inside packages  Use absolute imports using the whole package name CreateUser py in Scripts      from user management Modules import LDAPManager    In order for the second one to work the package user management should be installed inside the PYTHONPATH  During development you can configure the IDE so that this happens  without having to manually add calls to sys path append anywhere   Also I find it odd that Scripts  is a subpackage  Because in a real installation the user management module would be installed under the site-packages found in the lib  directory  whichever directory is used to install libraries in your OS   while the scripts should be installed under a bin  directory  whichever contains executables for your OS    In fact I believe Script  shouldn t even be under user management  It should be at the same level of user management  In this way you do not have to use -m  but you simply have to make sure the package can be found  this again is a matter of configuring the IDE  installing the package correctly or using PYTHONPATH   python Scripts CreateUser py to launch the scripts with the correct path      In summary  the hierarchy I would use is   user management   package                     -------   init   py                    ------- Modules                                             -----   init   py                      ----- LDAPManager py                      ----- PasswordManager py             Scripts     not  a package                       ----- CreateUser py          ----- FindUser py   Then the code of CreateUser py and FindUser py should use absolute imports to import the modules   from user management Modules import LDAPManager   During installation you make sure that user management ends up somewhere in the PYTHONPATH  and the scripts inside the directory for executables so that they are able to find the modules  During development you either rely on IDE configuration  or you launch CreateUser py adding the Scripts  parent directory to the PYTHONPATH  I mean the directory that contains both user management and Scripts    PYTHONPATH  the parent directory python Scripts CreateUser py   Or you can modify the PYTHONPATH globally so that you don t have to specify this each time  On unix OSes  linux  Mac OS X etc   you can modify one of the shell scripts to define the PYTHONPATH external variable  on Windows you have to change the environmental variables settings     Addendum I believe  if you are using python2  it s better to make sure to avoid implicit relative imports by putting   from   future   import absolute import   at the top of your modules  In this way import X always means to import the toplevel module X and will never try to import the X py file that s in the same directory  if that directory isn t in the PYTHONPATH   In this way the only way to do a relative import is to use the explicit syntax  the from   import X   which is better  explicit is better than implicit    This will make sure you never happen to use the  bogus  implicit relative imports  since these would raise an ImportError clearly signalling that something is wrong  Otherwise you could use a module that s not what you think it is

User · Answer

In the  root    init   py you can also do a  import sys sys path insert 1         which should make both modules importable

[python] Python: import module from another directory at the same level in project hierarchy

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