Relative imports for the billionth time

Question

I ve been here   http   www python org dev peps pep-0328  http   docs python org 2 tutorial modules html packages Python packages  relative imports python relative import example code does not work Relative imports in python 2 5 Relative imports in Python Python  Disabling relative import  and plenty of URLs that I did not copy  some on SO  some on other sites  back when I thought I d have the solution quickly  The forever-recurring question is this  With Windows 7  32-bit Python 2 7 3  how do I solve this  quot Attempted relative import in non-package quot  message   I built an exact replica of the package on pep-0328  package        init   py     subpackage1            init   py         moduleX py         moduleY py     subpackage2            init   py         moduleZ py     moduleA py  The imports were done from the console  I did make functions named spam and eggs in their appropriate modules   Naturally  it didn t work   The answer is apparently in the 4th URL I listed  but it s all alumni to me  There was this response on one of the URLs I visited   Relative imports use a module s name attribute to determine that module s position in the package hierarchy  If the module s name does not contain any package information  e g  it is set to  main   then relative imports are resolved as if the module were a top level module  regardless of where the module is actually located on the file system   The above response looks promising  but it s all hieroglyphs to me   So my question  how do I make Python not return to me  quot Attempted relative import in non-package quot   has an answer that involves -m  supposedly  Can somebody please tell me why Python gives that error message  what it means by  quot non-package quot   why and how do you define a  package   and the precise answer put in terms easy enough for a kindergartener to understand

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This is really a problem within python  The origin of confusion is that people mistakenly takes the relative import as path relative which is not    For example when you write in faa py   from    import foo   This has a meaning only if faa py was identified and loaded by python  during execution  as a part of a package  In that case the module s name   for faa py would be for example some packagename faa  If the file was loaded just because it is in the current directory  when python is run  then its name would not refer to any package and eventually relative import would fail    A simple solution to refer modules in the current directory  is to use this   if   package   is None or   package                uses current directory visibility     import foo else        uses current package visibility     from   import foo

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Here s a general recipe  modified to fit as an example  that I am using right now for dealing with Python libraries written as packages  that contain interdependent files  where I want to be able to test parts of them piecemeal   Let s call this lib foo and say that it needs access to lib fileA for functions f1 and f2  and lib fileB for class Class3  I have included a few print calls to help illustrate how this works   In practice you would want to remove them  and maybe also the from   future   import print function line   This particular example is too simple to show when we really need to insert an entry into sys path    See Lars  answer for a case where we do need it  when we have two or more levels of package directories  and then we use os path dirname os path dirname   file       but it doesn t really hurt here either    It s also safe enough to do this without the if  i in sys path test   However  if each imported file inserts the same path   for instance  if both fileA and fileB want to import utilities from the package   this clutters up sys path with the same path many times  so it s nice to have the if  i not in sys path in the boilerplate  from   future   import print function   only when showing how this works  if   package        print  Package named   r     name   is   r   format   package      name         from  fileA import f1  f2     from  fileB import Class3 else      print  Not a package    name   is   r   format   name           these next steps should be used only with care and if needed        remove the sys path manipulation for simple cases       import os  sys      i   os path dirname os path abspath   file         if  i not in sys path          print  inserting   r  into sys path  format  i           sys path insert 0   i      else          print    r  is already in sys path  format  i       del  i   clean up global name space      from fileA import f1  f2     from fileB import Class3      all the code as usual      if   name         main         import doctest  sys     ret   doctest testmod       sys exit 0 if ret failed    0 else 1   The idea here is this  and note that these all function the same across python2 7 and python 3 x    If run as import lib or from lib import foo as a regular package import from ordinary code    package is lib and   name   is lib foo   We take the first code path  importing from  fileA  etc   If run as python lib foo py    package   will be None and   name   will be   main    We take the second code path   The lib directory will already be in sys path so there is no need to add it   We import from fileA  etc   If run within the lib directory as python foo py  the behavior is the same as for case 2   If run within the lib directory as python -m foo  the behavior is similar to cases 2 and 3   However  the path to the lib directory is not in sys path  so we add it before importing   The same applies if we run Python and then import foo   Since   is in sys path  we don t really need to add the absolute version of the path here   This is where a deeper package nesting structure  where we want to do from   otherlib fileC import      makes a difference   If you re not doing this  you can omit all the sys path manipulation entirely     Notes There is still a quirk   If you run this whole thing from outside    python2 lib foo  or    python3 lib foo  the behavior depends on the contents of lib   init   py   If that exists and is empty  all is well  Package named  lib     name   is    main     But if lib   init   py itself imports routine so that it can export routine name directly as lib name  you get    python2 lib foo Package named  lib     name   is  lib foo  Package named  lib     name   is    main     That is  the module gets imported twice  once via the package and then again as   main   so that it runs your main code   Python 3 6 and later warn about this    python3 lib routine Package named  lib     name   is  lib foo        runpy py 125  RuntimeWarning   lib foo  found in sys modules after import of package  lib   but prior to execution of  lib foo   this may result in unpredictable behaviour   warn RuntimeWarning msg   Package named  lib     name   is    main     The warning is new  but the warned-about behavior is not   It is part of what some call the double import trap    For additional details see issue 27487    Nick Coghlan says   This next trap exists in all current versions of Python  including 3 3  and can be summed up in the following general guideline   quot Never add a package directory  or any directory inside a package  directly to the Python path quot    Note that while we violate that rule here  we do it only when the file being loaded is not being loaded as part of a package  and our modification is specifically designed to allow us to access other files in that package    And  as I noted  we probably shouldn t do this at all for single level packages    If we wanted to be extra-clean  we might rewrite this as  e g       import os  sys      i   os path dirname os path dirname os path abspath   file          if  i not in sys path          sys path insert 0   i      else           i   None      from sub fileA import f1  f2     from sub fileB import Class3      if  i          sys path remove  i      del  i  That is  we modify sys path long enough to achieve our imports  then put it back the way it was  deleting one copy of  i if and only if we added one copy of  i

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I had a similar problem where I didn t want to change the Python module search  path and needed to load a module relatively from a script  in spite of  scripts can t import relative with all  as BrenBarn explained nicely above    So I used the following hack  Unfortunately  it relies on the imp module that  became deprecated since version 3 4 to be dropped in favour of importlib   Is this possible with importlib  too  I don t know   Still  the hack works for now   Example for accessing members of moduleX in subpackage1 from a script residing in the subpackage2 folder      usr bin env python3  import inspect import imp import os  def get script dir follow symlinks True               Return directory of code defining this very function      Should work from a module as well as from a script              script path   inspect getabsfile get script dir      if follow symlinks          script path   os path realpath script path      return os path dirname script path     loading the module  hack  relying on deprecated imp-module  PARENT PATH   os path dirname get script dir     x file  x path  x desc    imp find module  moduleX    PARENT PATH      subpackage1    module x   imp load module  subpackage1 moduleX   x file  x path  x desc     importing a function and a value function   module x my function VALUE   module x MY CONST   A cleaner approach seems to be to modify the sys path used for loading modules as mentioned by Federico      usr bin env python3  if   name         main    and   package   is None      from os import sys  path         file   should be defined in this case     PARENT DIR   path dirname path dirname path abspath   file         sys path append PARENT DIR  from subpackage1 moduleX import

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Relative imports use a module s name attribute to determine that module s position in the package hierarchy  If the module s name does not contain any package information  e g  it is set to  main   then relative imports are resolved as if the module were a top level module  regardless of where the module is actually located on the file system    Wrote a little python package to PyPi that might help viewers of this question  The package acts as workaround if one wishes to be able to run python files containing imports containing upper level packages from within a package   project without being directly in the importing file s directory  https   pypi org project import-anywhere

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BrenBarn s answer says it all  but if you re like me it might take a while to understand   Here s my case and how  BrenBarn s answer applies to it  perhaps it will help you   The case  package        init   py     subpackage1            init   py         moduleX py     moduleA py   Using our familiar example  and add to it that moduleX py has a relative import to   moduleA   Given that I tried writing a test script in the subpackage1 directory that imported moduleX  but then got the dreaded error described by the OP   Solution  Move test script to the same level as package and import package subpackage1 moduleX  Explanation  As explained  relative imports are made relative to the current name   When my test script imports moduleX from the same directory  then module name inside moduleX is moduleX   When it encounters a relative import the interpreter can t back up the package hierarchy because it s already at the top  When I import moduleX from above  then name inside moduleX is package subpackage1 moduleX and the relative import can be found

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Here is one solution that I would not recommend  but might be useful in some situations where modules were simply not generated   import os import sys parent dir name   os path dirname os path dirname os path realpath   file      sys path append parent dir name     your dir   import your script your script a function

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name   changes depending on whether the code in question is run in the global namespace or as part of an imported module   If the code is not running in the global space    name   will be the name of the module  If it is running in global namespace -- for example  if you type it into a console  or run the module as a script using python exe yourscriptnamehere py then   name   becomes    main        You ll see a lot of python code with  if   name         main    is used to test whether the code is being run from the global namespace     that allows you to have a module that doubles as a script    Did you try to do these imports from the console

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Script vs  Module  Here s an explanation   The short version is that there is a big difference between directly running a Python file  and importing that file from somewhere else   Just knowing what directory a file is in does not determine what package Python thinks it is in   That depends  additionally  on how you load the file into Python  by running or by importing    There are two ways to load a Python file  as the top-level script  or as a  module   A file is loaded as the top-level script if you execute it directly  for instance by typing python myfile py on the command line   It is loaded as a module if you do python -m myfile  or if it is loaded when an import statement is encountered inside some other file   There can only be one top-level script at a time  the top-level script is the Python file you ran to start things off   Naming  When a file is loaded  it is given a name  which is stored in its   name   attribute    If it was loaded as the top-level script  its name is   main     If it was loaded as a module  its name is the filename  preceded by the names of any packages subpackages of which it is a part  separated by dots   So for instance in your example   package        init   py     subpackage1            init   py         moduleX py     moduleA py   if you imported moduleX  note  imported  not directly executed   its name would be package subpackage1 moduleX   If you imported moduleA  its name would be package moduleA   However  if you directly run moduleX from the command line  its name will instead be   main    and if you directly run moduleA from the command line  its name will be   main     When a module is run as the top-level script  it loses its normal name and its name is instead   main     Accessing a module NOT through its containing package  There is an additional wrinkle  the module s name depends on whether it was imported  directly  from the directory it is in  or imported via a package   This only makes a difference if you run Python in a directory  and try to import a file in that same directory  or a subdirectory of it    For instance  if you start the Python interpreter in the directory package subpackage1 and then do import moduleX  the name of moduleX will just be moduleX  and not package subpackage1 moduleX   This is because Python adds the current directory to its search path on startup  if it finds the to-be-imported module in the current directory  it will not know that that directory is part of a package  and the package information will not become part of the module s name   A special case is if you run the interpreter interactively  e g   just type python and start entering Python code on the fly    In this case the name of that interactive session is   main     Now here is the crucial thing for your error message  if a module s name has no dots  it is not considered to be part of a package   It doesn t matter where the file actually is on disk   All that matters is what its name is  and its name depends on how you loaded it   Now look at the quote you included in your question      Relative imports use a module s name attribute to determine that module s position in the package hierarchy  If the module s name does not contain any package information  e g  it is set to  main   then relative imports are resolved as if the module were a top level module  regardless of where the module is actually located on the file system    Relative imports     Relative imports use the module s name to determine where it is in a package   When you use a relative import like from    import foo  the dots indicate to step up some number of levels in the package hierarchy   For instance  if your current module s name is package subpackage1 moduleX  then   moduleA would mean package moduleA   For a from    import to work  the module s name must have at least as many dots as there are in the import statement       are only relative in a package  However  if your module s name is   main    it is not considered to be in a package   Its name has no dots  and therefore you cannot use from    import statements inside it   If you try to do so  you will get the  relative-import in non-package  error   Scripts can t import relative  What you probably did is you tried to run moduleX or the like from the command line   When you did this  its name was set to   main    which means that relative imports within it will fail  because its name does not reveal that it is in a package  Note that this will also happen if you run Python from the same directory where a module is  and then try to import that module  because  as described above  Python will find the module in the current directory  too early  without realizing it is part of a package   Also remember that when you run the interactive interpreter  the  name  of that interactive session is always   main     Thus you cannot do relative imports directly from an interactive session   Relative imports are only for use within module files   Two solutions    If you really do want to run moduleX directly  but you still want it to be considered part of a package  you can do python -m package subpackage1 moduleX   The -m tells Python to load it as a module  not as the top-level script  Or perhaps you don t actually want to run moduleX  you just want to run some other script  say myfile py  that uses functions inside moduleX   If that is the case  put myfile py somewhere else  ndash  not inside the package directory  ndash  and run it   If inside myfile py you do things like from package moduleA import spam  it will work fine    Notes   For either of these solutions  the package directory  package in your example  must be accessible from the Python module search path  sys path    If it is not  you will not be able to use anything in the package reliably at all  Since Python 2 6  the module s  name  for package-resolution purposes is determined not just by its   name   attributes but also by the   package   attribute   That s why I m avoiding using the explicit symbol   name   to refer to the module s  name    Since Python 2 6 a module s  name  is effectively   package             name    or just   name   if   package   is None

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There are too much too long anwers in a foreign language  So I ll try to make it short  If you write from   import module  opposite to  what you think  module will not be imported from current directory  but from the top level of your package  If you run  py file as a script  it simply doesn t know where the top level is and thus refuses to work  If you start it like this py -m package module from the directory above package  then python knows where the top level is  That s very similar to java  java -cp bin directory package class

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So after carping about this along with many others  I came across a note posted by Dorian B in this article that solved the specific problem I was having where I would develop modules and classes for use with a web service  but I also want to be able to test them as I m coding  using the debugger facilities in PyCharm  To run tests in a self-contained class  I would include the following at the end of my class file   if   name         main          run test code here      but if I wanted to import other classes or modules in the same folder  I would then have to change all my import statements from relative notation to local references  i e  remove the dot       But after reading Dorian s suggestion  I tried his  one-liner  and it worked   I can now test in PyCharm and leave my test code in place when I use the class in another class under test  or when I use it in my web service     import any site-lib modules first  then    import sys parent module   sys modules     join   name   split       -1   or    main     if   name         main    or parent module   name         main         from codex import Codex   these are in same folder as module under test      from dblogger import DbLogger else      from  codex import Codex     from  dblogger import DbLogger   The if statement checks to see if we re running this module as main or if it s being used in another module that s being tested as main   Perhaps this is obvious  but I offer this note here in case anyone else frustrated by the relative import issues above can make use of it

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Another dirty but working workaround  Assumes you are on top level of your package  import sys from os path import dirname  basename  if   package   is None      sys path append             package     basename dirname sys argv 0     from   import your module  The advantage vs another answer here is that you don t need to change imports which are autogenerated by IDE

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To make Python not return to me  Attempted relative import in non-package   package   init py     subpackage1          init py         moduleX py         moduleY py     subpackage2          init py         moduleZ py     moduleA py  This error occurs only if you are applying relative import to the parent file  For example parent file already returns main after you code   print name   in moduleA py  so THIS file is already main it cannot return any parent package further on  relative imports are required in files of packages subpackage1 and subpackage2 you can use      to refer to the parent directory or module  But parent is if already top level package it cannot go further above that parent directory package   Such files where you are applying relative importing to parents can only work with the application of absolute import  If you will use ABSOLUTE IMPORT  IN PARENT PACKAGE NO ERROR will come as python knows who is at the top level of package even if your file is in subpackages  because of the concept of PYTHON PATH which defines the top level of the project

[python] Relative imports for the billionth time

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