PyLint Unable to import error - how to set PYTHONPATH

Question

I m running PyLint from inside Wing IDE on Windows  I have a sub-directory  package  in my project and inside the package I import a module from the top level  ie     init   py myapp py one py subdir        init   py     two py   Inside two py I have import one and this works fine at runtime  because the top-level directory  from which myapp py is run  is in the Python path  However  when I run PyLint on two py it gives me an error   F0401  Unable to import  one    How do I fix this

User · Answer

If you want to walk up from the current module/file that was handed to pylint looking for the root of the module, this will do it.

[MASTER]
init-hook=sys.path += [os.path.abspath(os.path.join(os.path.sep, *sys.argv[-1].split(os.sep)[:i])) for i, _ in enumerate(sys.argv[-1].split(os.sep)) if os.path.isdir(os.path.abspath(os.path.join(os.path.sep, *sys.argv[-1].split(os.sep)[:i], '.git')))][::-1]

If you have a python module ~/code/mymodule/, with a top-level directory layout like this

~/code/mymodule/
+-- .pylintrc
+-- mymodule/
¦   +-- src.py
+-- tests/
    +-- test_src.py

Then this will add ~/code/mymodule/ to your python path and allow for pylint to run in your IDE, even if you're importing mymodule.src in tests/test_src.py.

You could swap out a check for a .pylintrc instead but a git directory is usually what you want when it comes to the root of a python module.

Before you ask

The answers using import sys, os; sys.path.append(...) are missing something that justifies the format of my answer. I don't normally write code that way, but in this case you're stuck dealing with the limitations of the pylintrc config parser and evaluator. It literally runs exec in the context of the init_hook callback so any attempt to import pathlib, use multi-line statements, store something into variables, etc., won't work.

A less disgusting form of my code might look like this:

import os
import sys

def look_for_git_dirs(filename):
    has_git_dir = []
    filename_parts = filename.split(os.sep)
    for i, _ in enumerate(filename_parts):
        filename_part = os.path.abspath(os.path.join(os.path.sep, *filename_parts[:i]))
        if os.path.isdir(os.path.join(filename_part, '.git')):
            has_git_dir.append(filename_part)
    return has_git_dir[::-1]

# don't use .append() in case there's < 1 or > 1 matches found
sys.path += look_for_git_dirs(sys.argv[-1])

I wish I could have used pathlib.Path(filename).parents it would have made things much easier.

User · Answer

I had the same problem and since i could not find a answer I hope this can help anyone with a similar problem    I use flymake with epylint  Basically what i did was add a dired-mode-hook that check if the dired directory is a python package directory  If it is I add it to the PYTHONPATH  In my case I consider a directory to be a python package if it contains a file named  setup py                         PYTHON PATH                        defun python-expand-path       Append a directory to the PYTHONPATH      interactive     let   string  read-directory-name             Python package directory               nil             my-history          setenv  PYTHONPATH   concat  expand-file-name string                     getenv   PYTHONPATH          defun pythonpath-dired-mode-hook       let   setup py  concat default-directory  setup py         directory  expand-file-name default-directory              if  file-exists-p setup py       if  is-python-package-directory directory       let   pythonpath  concat  getenv  PYTHONPATH                           expand-file-name directory            setenv  PYTHONPATH  pythonpath         message  concat  PYTHONPATH    getenv  PYTHONPATH           defun is-python-package-directory  directory     let   setup py  concat directory  setup py          file-exists-p setup py      add-hook  dired-mode-hook  pythonpath-dired-mode-hook    Hope this helps

User · Answer

If you are using Cython in Linux  I resolved removing module cpython-XXm-X-linux-gnu so files in my project target directory

User · Answer

Try  if   name         main         from  whatever the name of your package is  import one else      import one   Note that in Python 3  the syntax for the part in the else clause would be  from    import one     On second thought  this probably won t fix your specific problem  I misunderstood the question and thought that two py was being run as the main module  but that is not the case  And considering the differences in the way Python 2 6  without importing absolute import from   future    and Python 3 x handle imports  you wouldn t need to do this for Python 2 6 anyway  I don t think   Still  if you do eventually switch to Python 3 and plan on using a module as both a package module and as a standalone script inside the package  it may be a good idea to keep something like  if   name         main         from  whatever the name of your package is  import one     assuming the package is in the current working directory or a subdirectory of PYTHONPATH else      from    import one   in mind   EDIT  And now for a possible solution to your actual problem  Either run PyLint from the directory containing your one module  via the command line  perhaps   or put the following code somewhere when running PyLint   import os  olddir   os getcwd   os chdir  path of directory containing module one   import one os chdir olddir    Basically  as an alternative to fiddling with PYTHONPATH  just make sure the current working directory is the directory containing one py when you do the import    Looking at Brian s answer  you could probably assign the previous code to init hook  but if you re going to do that then you could simply do the appending to sys path that he does  which is slightly more elegant than my solution

User · Answer

This is an old question but has no accepted answer  so I ll suggest this  change the import statement in two py to read   from    import one   In my current environment  Python 3 6  VSCode using pylint 2 3 1  this clears the flagged statement

User · Answer

Do you have an empty   init   py file in both directories to let python know that the dirs are modules   The basic outline when you are not running from within the folder  ie maybe from pylint s  though I haven t used that  is   topdir      init   py   functions etc py   subdir        init   py     other functions py   This is how the python interpreter is aware of the module without reference to the current directory  so if pylint is running from its own absolute path it will be able to access functions etc py as topdir functions etc or topdir subdir other functions  provided topdir is on the PYTHONPATH   UPDATE  If the problem is not the   init   py file  maybe just try copying or moving your module to c  Python26 Lib site-packages -- that is a common place to put additional packages  and will definitely be on your pythonpath   If you know how to do Windows symbolic links or the equivalent  I don t    you could do that instead  There are many more options here  http   docs python org install index html  including the option of appending sys path with the user-level directory of your development code  but in practice I usually just symbolically link my local development dir to site-packages - copying it over has the same effect

User · Answer

There are two options I m aware of   One  change the PYTHONPATH environment variable to include the directory above your module   Alternatively  edit    pylintrc to include the directory above your module  like this    MASTER  init-hook  import sys  sys path append   path to root       Or in other version of pylint  the init-hook requires you to change  General  to  MASTER    Both of these options ought to work   Hope that helps

User · Answer

I don t know how it works with WingIDE  but for using PyLint with Geany  I set my external command to   PYTHONPATH   PYTHONPATH    dirname  d  pylint --output-format parseable --reports n   f    where  f is the filename  and  d is the path   Might be useful for someone

User · Answer

general answer for this question I found on this page PLEASE NOT OPEN  SITE IS BUGED  create  pylintrc and add   MASTER  init-hook  from pylint config import find pylintrc  import os  sys  sys path append os path dirname find pylintrc

User · Answer

I found a nice answer  Edit your pylintrc and add the following in master   init-hook  import imp  os  from pylint config import find pylintrc  imp load source  import hook   os path join os path dirname find pylintrc      import hook py

User · Answer

if you using vscode make sure your package directory is out of the  pychache   directory

User · Answer

The key is to add your project directory to sys path without considering about the env variable   For someone who use VSCode  here s a one-line solution for you if there s a base directory of your project    MASTER  init-hook  base dir  my spider   import sys os re   re re search r         base dir  os getcwd     project dir    re group   if  re else os path join os getcwd    base dir   sys path append project dir     Let me explain it a little bit    re search r         base dir  os getcwd    group    find base directory according to the editing file os path join os getcwd    base dir   add cwd to sys path to meet command line environment     FYI  here s my  pylintrc   https   gist github com chuyik f0ffc41a6948b6c87c7160151ffe8c2f

User · Answer

1  sys path is a list    2  The problem is sometimes the sys path is not your virtualenv path and you want to use pylint in your virtualenv  3  So like said  use init-hook  pay attention in   and   the parse of pylint is strict    Master  init-hook  sys path      path myapps bin      path to myapps lib python3 3 site-packages        many paths here      or   Master  init-hook  sys path   list    sys path append   path to foo         and    pylint --rcfile  path to pylintrc  path to module py

User · Answer

The problem can be solved by configuring pylint path under venv    cat  vscode settings json          python pythonPath    venv bin python        python linting pylintPath    venv bin pylint

User · Answer

I had this same issue and fixed it by installing pylint in my virtualenv and then adding a  pylintrc file to my project directory with the following in the file    Master  init-hook  sys path   list    sys path append    Lib site-packages

User · Answer

I had to update the system PYTHONPATH variable to add my App Engine path  In my case I just had to edit my    bashrc file and add the following line   export PYTHONPATH  PYTHONPATH  path to google appengine folder  In fact  I tried setting the init-hook first but this did not resolve the issue consistently across my code base  not sure why   Once I added it to the system path  probably a good idea in general  my issues went away

User · Answer

One workaround that I only just discovered is to actually just run PyLint for the entire package  rather than a single file  Somehow  it manages to find imported module then

User · Answer

The solution to alter path in init-hook is good  but I dislike the fact that I had to add absolute path there  as result I can not share this pylintrc file among the developers of the project  This solution using relative path to pylintrc file works better for me    MASTER  init-hook  from pylint config import find pylintrc  import os  sys  sys path append os path dirname find pylintrc        Note that pylint config PYLINTRC also exists and has the same value as find pylintrc

User · Answer

First  go to your VS Code then press  quot ctrl   shift   p quot  Then search settings json Then paste the below code inside the settings jason I hope the problem will be solved     quot python pythonPath quot    quot venv bin python quot    quot python linting pylintPath quot    quot venv bin pylint quot

User · Answer

Maybe by manually appending the dir inside the PYTHONPATH   sys path append dirname

User · Answer

In case anybody is looking for a way to run pylint as an external tool in PyCharm and have it work with their virtual environments  why I came to this question   here s how I solved it    In PyCharm   Preferences   Tools   External Tools  Add or Edit an item for pylint  In the Tool Settings of the Edit Tool dialog  set Program to use pylint from the python interpreter directory   PyInterpreterDirectory  pylint Set your other parameters in the Parameters field  like  --rcfile  ProjectFileDir  pylintrc -r n  FileDir  Set your working directory to  FileDir    Now using pylint as an external tool will run pylint on whatever directory you have selected using a common config file and use whatever interpreter is configured for your project  which presumably is your virtualenv interpreter

User · Answer

Hello i was able to import the packages from different directory  I just did the following  Note  I am using VScode  Steps to Create a Python Package Working with Python packages is really simple  All you need to do is   Create a directory and give it your package s name  Put your classes in it  Create a init py file in the directory  For example  you have a folder called Framework where you are keeping all the custom classes there and your job is to just create a init py file inside the folder named Framework   And while importing you need to import in this fashion---   from Framework import base  so the E0401 error disappears Framework is the folder where you just created init py and base is your custom module which you are required to import into and work upon Hope it helps

User · Answer

When you install Python  you can set up the path  If path is already defined then what you can do is within VS Code  hit Ctrl Shift P and type Python  Select Interpreter and select updated version of Python  Follow this link for more information  https   code visualstudio com docs python environments

User · Answer

just add this code in  vscode settings json file   quot python linting pylintPath quot    quot venv bin pylint quot  This will notify the location of pylint which is an error checker for python

[python] PyLint "Unable to import" error - how to set PYTHONPATH?

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