How to import a module given the full path

Question

How can I load a Python module given its full path  Note that the file can be anywhere in the filesystem  as it is a configuration option

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Create python module test py  import sys sys path append   lt project-path gt  lib    from tes1 import Client1 from tes2 import Client2 import tes3   Create python module test check py  from test import Client1 from test import Client2 from test import test3   We can import the imported module from module

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The best way  I think  is from the official documentation  29 1  imp     Access the import internals    import imp import sys  def   import   name  globals None  locals None  fromlist None         Fast path  see if the module has already been imported      try          return sys modules name      except KeyError          pass        If any of the following calls raises an exception        there s a problem we can t handle -- let the caller handle it       fp  pathname  description   imp find module name       try          return imp load module name  fp  pathname  description      finally            Since we may exit via an exception  close fp explicitly          if fp              fp close

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To import your module  you need to add its directory to the environment variable  either temporarily or permanently   Temporarily  import sys sys path append   path to my modules    import my module   Permanently  Adding the following line to your  bashrc file  in linux  and excecute source    bashrc in the terminal   export PYTHONPATH    PYTHONPATH   path to my modules     Credit Source  saarrrr  another stackexchange question

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Import package modules at runtime  Python recipe    http   code activestate com recipes 223972                                              classloader py                                            import sys  types  def  get mod modulePath       try          aMod   sys modules modulePath          if not isinstance aMod  types ModuleType               raise KeyError     except KeyError            The last      is very important          aMod     import   modulePath  globals    locals                  sys modules modulePath    aMod     return aMod  def  get func fullFuncName          Retrieve a function object from a full dotted-package name            Parse out the path  module  and function     lastDot   fullFuncName rfind u         funcName   fullFuncName lastDot   1       modPath   fullFuncName  lastDot       aMod    get mod modPath      aFunc   getattr aMod  funcName         Assert that the function is a  callable  attribute      assert callable aFunc   u  s is not callable     fullFuncName        Return a reference to the function itself        not the results of the function      return aFunc  def  get class fullClassName  parentClass None          Load a module and retrieve a class  NOT an instance        If the parentClass is supplied  className must be of parentClass     or a subclass of parentClass  or None is returned               aClass    get func fullClassName         Assert that the class is a subclass of parentClass      if parentClass is not None          if not issubclass aClass  parentClass               raise TypeError u  s is not a subclass of  s                                 fullClassName  parentClass          Return a reference to the class itself  not an instantiated object      return aClass                                   Usage                                 class StorageManager  pass class StorageManagerMySQL StorageManager   pass  def storage object aFullClassName  allOptions          aStoreClass    get class aFullClassName  StorageManager      return aStoreClass allOptions

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There s a package that s dedicated to this specifically   from thesmuggler import smuggle       la  import weapons  weapons   smuggle  weapons py         la  from contraband import drugs  alcohol  drugs  alcohol   smuggle  drugs    alcohol   source  contraband py         la  from contraband import drugs as dope  alcohol as booze  dope  booze   smuggle  drugs    alcohol   source  contraband py     It s tested across Python versions  Jython and PyPy too   but it might be overkill depending on the size of your project

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The advantage of adding a path to sys path  over using imp  is that it simplifies things when importing more than one module from a single package   For example   import sys   the mock-0 3 1 dir contains testcase py  testutils py  amp  mock py sys path append   foo bar mock-0 3 1    from testcase import TestCase from testutils import RunTests from mock import Mock  sentinel  patch

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This should work  path   os path join    path to folder with py files      py   for infile in glob glob path       basename   os path basename infile      basename without extension   basename  -3         http   docs python org library imp html highlight imp module-imp     imp load source basename without extension  infile

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Import package modules at runtime  Python recipe    http   code activestate com recipes 223972                                              classloader py                                            import sys  types  def  get mod modulePath       try          aMod   sys modules modulePath          if not isinstance aMod  types ModuleType               raise KeyError     except KeyError            The last      is very important          aMod     import   modulePath  globals    locals                  sys modules modulePath    aMod     return aMod  def  get func fullFuncName          Retrieve a function object from a full dotted-package name            Parse out the path  module  and function     lastDot   fullFuncName rfind u         funcName   fullFuncName lastDot   1       modPath   fullFuncName  lastDot       aMod    get mod modPath      aFunc   getattr aMod  funcName         Assert that the function is a  callable  attribute      assert callable aFunc   u  s is not callable     fullFuncName        Return a reference to the function itself        not the results of the function      return aFunc  def  get class fullClassName  parentClass None          Load a module and retrieve a class  NOT an instance        If the parentClass is supplied  className must be of parentClass     or a subclass of parentClass  or None is returned               aClass    get func fullClassName         Assert that the class is a subclass of parentClass      if parentClass is not None          if not issubclass aClass  parentClass               raise TypeError u  s is not a subclass of  s                                 fullClassName  parentClass          Return a reference to the class itself  not an instantiated object      return aClass                                   Usage                                 class StorageManager  pass class StorageManagerMySQL StorageManager   pass  def storage object aFullClassName  allOptions          aStoreClass    get class aFullClassName  StorageManager      return aStoreClass allOptions

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I believe you can use imp find module   and imp load module   to load the specified module   You ll need to split the module name off of the path  i e  if you wanted to load  home mypath mymodule py you d need to do   imp find module  mymodule     home mypath         but that should get the job done

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I have come up with a slightly modified version of  SebastianRittau s wonderful answer  for Python   3 4 I think   which will allow you to load a file with any extension as a module using spec from loader instead of spec from file location   from importlib util import spec from loader  module from spec from importlib machinery import SourceFileLoader   spec   spec from loader  module name   SourceFileLoader  module name     path to file py    mod   module from spec spec  spec loader exec module mod    The advantage of encoding the path in an explicit SourceFileLoader is that the machinery will not try to figure out the type of the file from the extension  This means that you can load something like a  txt file using this method  but you could not do it with spec from file location without specifying the loader because  txt is not in importlib machinery SOURCE SUFFIXES

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You can also do something like this and add the directory that the configuration file is sitting in to the Python load path  and then just do a normal import  assuming you know the name of the file in advance  in this case  config    Messy  but it works   configfile      config py   import os import sys  sys path append os path dirname os path expanduser configfile     import config

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you can do this using    import    and chdir def import file full path to module       try          import os         module dir  module file   os path split full path to module          module name  module ext   os path splitext module file          save cwd   os getcwd           os chdir module dir          module obj     import   module name          module obj   file     full path to module         globals   module name    module obj         os chdir save cwd      except Exception as e          raise ImportError e      return module obj   import file   home somebody somemodule py

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Import package modules at runtime  Python recipe    http   code activestate com recipes 223972                                              classloader py                                            import sys  types  def  get mod modulePath       try          aMod   sys modules modulePath          if not isinstance aMod  types ModuleType               raise KeyError     except KeyError            The last      is very important          aMod     import   modulePath  globals    locals                  sys modules modulePath    aMod     return aMod  def  get func fullFuncName          Retrieve a function object from a full dotted-package name            Parse out the path  module  and function     lastDot   fullFuncName rfind u         funcName   fullFuncName lastDot   1       modPath   fullFuncName  lastDot       aMod    get mod modPath      aFunc   getattr aMod  funcName         Assert that the function is a  callable  attribute      assert callable aFunc   u  s is not callable     fullFuncName        Return a reference to the function itself        not the results of the function      return aFunc  def  get class fullClassName  parentClass None          Load a module and retrieve a class  NOT an instance        If the parentClass is supplied  className must be of parentClass     or a subclass of parentClass  or None is returned               aClass    get func fullClassName         Assert that the class is a subclass of parentClass      if parentClass is not None          if not issubclass aClass  parentClass               raise TypeError u  s is not a subclass of  s                                 fullClassName  parentClass          Return a reference to the class itself  not an instantiated object      return aClass                                   Usage                                 class StorageManager  pass class StorageManagerMySQL StorageManager   pass  def storage object aFullClassName  allOptions          aStoreClass    get class aFullClassName  StorageManager      return aStoreClass allOptions

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You can also do something like this and add the directory that the configuration file is sitting in to the Python load path  and then just do a normal import  assuming you know the name of the file in advance  in this case  config    Messy  but it works   configfile      config py   import os import sys  sys path append os path dirname os path expanduser configfile     import config

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Adding this to the list of answers as I couldn t find anything that worked  This will allow imports of compiled  pyd  python modules in 3 4   import sys import importlib machinery  def load module name  filename         If the Loader finds the module name in this list it will use       module name   file   instead so we need to delete it here     if name in sys modules          del sys modules name      loader   importlib machinery ExtensionFileLoader name  filename      module   loader load module       locals   name    module     globals   name    module  load module  something   r C  Path To something pyd   something do something

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This area of Python 3 4 seems to be extremely tortuous to understand  However with a bit of hacking using the code from Chris Calloway as a start I managed to get something working  Here s the basic function   def import module from file full path to module               Import a module given the full path filename of the  py file      Python 3 4               module   None      try             Get module name and path from full path         module dir  module file   os path split full path to module          module name  module ext   os path splitext module file             Get module  spec  from filename         spec   importlib util spec from file location module name full path to module           module   spec loader load module        except Exception as ec            Simple error printing           Insert  sophisticated  stuff here         print ec       finally          return module   This appears to use non-deprecated modules from Python 3 4  I don t pretend to understand why  but it seems to work from within a program  I found Chris  solution worked on the command line but not from inside a program

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Do you mean load or import   You can manipulate the sys path list specify the path to your module  then import your module  For example  given a module at    foo bar py   You could do   import sys sys path 0 0       foo     puts the  foo directory at the start of your path import bar

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For Python 3 5  use   import importlib util spec   importlib util spec from file location  module name     path to file py   foo   importlib util module from spec spec  spec loader exec module foo  foo MyClass     For Python 3 3 and 3 4 use   from importlib machinery import SourceFileLoader  foo   SourceFileLoader  module name     path to file py   load module   foo MyClass      Although this has been deprecated in Python 3 4    For Python 2 use   import imp  foo   imp load source  module name     path to file py   foo MyClass     There are equivalent convenience functions for compiled Python files and DLLs   See also http   bugs python org issue21436

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If your top-level module is not a file but is packaged as a directory with   init   py  then the accepted solution almost works  but not quite  In Python 3 5  the following code is needed  note the added line that begins with  sys modules     MODULE PATH     path to your module   init   py  MODULE NAME    mymodule  import importlib import sys spec   importlib util spec from file location MODULE NAME  MODULE PATH  module   importlib util module from spec spec  sys modules spec name    module  spec loader exec module module    Without this line  when exec module is executed  it tries to bind relative imports in your top level   init   py to the top level module name -- in this case  mymodule   But  mymodule  isn t loaded yet so you ll get the error  SystemError  Parent module  mymodule  not loaded  cannot perform relative import   So you need to bind the name before you load it  The reason for this is the fundamental invariant of the relative import system   The invariant holding is that if you have sys modules  spam   and sys modules  spam foo    as you would after the above import   the latter must appear as the foo attribute of the former  as discussed here

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I have come up with a slightly modified version of  SebastianRittau s wonderful answer  for Python   3 4 I think   which will allow you to load a file with any extension as a module using spec from loader instead of spec from file location   from importlib util import spec from loader  module from spec from importlib machinery import SourceFileLoader   spec   spec from loader  module name   SourceFileLoader  module name     path to file py    mod   module from spec spec  spec loader exec module mod    The advantage of encoding the path in an explicit SourceFileLoader is that the machinery will not try to figure out the type of the file from the extension  This means that you can load something like a  txt file using this method  but you could not do it with spec from file location without specifying the loader because  txt is not in importlib machinery SOURCE SUFFIXES

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For Python 3 5  use   import importlib util spec   importlib util spec from file location  module name     path to file py   foo   importlib util module from spec spec  spec loader exec module foo  foo MyClass     For Python 3 3 and 3 4 use   from importlib machinery import SourceFileLoader  foo   SourceFileLoader  module name     path to file py   load module   foo MyClass      Although this has been deprecated in Python 3 4    For Python 2 use   import imp  foo   imp load source  module name     path to file py   foo MyClass     There are equivalent convenience functions for compiled Python files and DLLs   See also http   bugs python org issue21436

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You can use the   load source module name  path to file     method from imp module

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Here is some code that works in all Python versions  from 2 7-3 5 and probably even others   config file     tmp config py  with open config file  as f      code   compile f read    config file   exec       exec code  globals    locals      I tested it  It may be ugly but so far is the only one that works in all versions

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Here is some code that works in all Python versions  from 2 7-3 5 and probably even others   config file     tmp config py  with open config file  as f      code   compile f read    config file   exec       exec code  globals    locals      I tested it  It may be ugly but so far is the only one that works in all versions

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Import package modules at runtime  Python recipe    http   code activestate com recipes 223972                                              classloader py                                            import sys  types  def  get mod modulePath       try          aMod   sys modules modulePath          if not isinstance aMod  types ModuleType               raise KeyError     except KeyError            The last      is very important          aMod     import   modulePath  globals    locals                  sys modules modulePath    aMod     return aMod  def  get func fullFuncName          Retrieve a function object from a full dotted-package name            Parse out the path  module  and function     lastDot   fullFuncName rfind u         funcName   fullFuncName lastDot   1       modPath   fullFuncName  lastDot       aMod    get mod modPath      aFunc   getattr aMod  funcName         Assert that the function is a  callable  attribute      assert callable aFunc   u  s is not callable     fullFuncName        Return a reference to the function itself        not the results of the function      return aFunc  def  get class fullClassName  parentClass None          Load a module and retrieve a class  NOT an instance        If the parentClass is supplied  className must be of parentClass     or a subclass of parentClass  or None is returned               aClass    get func fullClassName         Assert that the class is a subclass of parentClass      if parentClass is not None          if not issubclass aClass  parentClass               raise TypeError u  s is not a subclass of  s                                 fullClassName  parentClass          Return a reference to the class itself  not an instantiated object      return aClass                                   Usage                                 class StorageManager  pass class StorageManagerMySQL StorageManager   pass  def storage object aFullClassName  allOptions          aStoreClass    get class aFullClassName  StorageManager      return aStoreClass allOptions

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I believe you can use imp find module   and imp load module   to load the specified module   You ll need to split the module name off of the path  i e  if you wanted to load  home mypath mymodule py you d need to do   imp find module  mymodule     home mypath         but that should get the job done

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quite simple way  suppose you want import file with relative path       MyLibs pyfunc py   libPath          MyLibs  import sys if not libPath in sys path  sys path append libPath  import pyfunc as pf   But if you make it without a guard you can finally get a very long path

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A simple solution using importlib instead of the imp package  tested for Python 2 7  although it should work for Python 3 too    import importlib  dirname  basename   os path split pyfilepath    pyfilepath    my path mymodule py  sys path append dirname    only directories should be added to PYTHONPATH module name   os path splitext basename  0      my path mymodule py  -- gt   mymodule  module   importlib import module module name    name space of defined module  otherwise we would literally look for  module name     Now you can directly use the namespace of the imported module  like this   a   module myvar b   module myfunc a    The advantage of this solution is that we don t even need to know the actual name of the module we would like to import  in order to use it in our code  This is useful  e g  in case the path of the module is a configurable argument

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You can use the   load source module name  path to file     method from imp module

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It sounds like you don t want to specifically import the configuration file  which has a whole lot of side effects and additional complications involved   you just want to run it  and be able to access the resulting namespace  The standard library provides an API specifically for that in the form of runpy run path   from runpy import run path settings   run path   path to file py     That interface is available in Python 2 7 and Python 3 2

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The best way  I think  is from the official documentation  29 1  imp     Access the import internals    import imp import sys  def   import   name  globals None  locals None  fromlist None         Fast path  see if the module has already been imported      try          return sys modules name      except KeyError          pass        If any of the following calls raises an exception        there s a problem we can t handle -- let the caller handle it       fp  pathname  description   imp find module name       try          return imp load module name  fp  pathname  description      finally            Since we may exit via an exception  close fp explicitly          if fp              fp close

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I have wrote my own global and portable import function  based on importlib module  for    Be able to import both module as a submodule and to import content of a module to a parent module  or into a globals if has no parent module   Be able to import modules with a period characters in a file name  Be able to import modules with any extension  Be able to use a standalone name for a submodule instead of a file name without extension which is by default  Be able to define the import order based on previously imported module instead of dependent on sys path or on a what ever search path storage    The examples directory structure    lt root gt       - test py      - testlib py      -  std1              - testlib std1 py      -  std2              - testlib std2 py      -  std3              - testlib std3 py   Inclusion dependency and order   test py   - gt  testlib py     - gt  testlib std1 py       - gt  testlib std2 py     - gt  testlib std3 py    Implementation   Latest changes store  https   sourceforge net p tacklelib tacklelib HEAD tree trunk python tacklelib tacklelib py  test py   import os  sys  inspect  copy  SOURCE FILE   os path abspath inspect getsourcefile lambda 0   replace           SOURCE DIR   os path dirname SOURCE FILE   print  test  SOURCE FILE     SOURCE FILE     portable import to the global space sys path append TACKLELIB ROOT    TACKLELIB ROOT - path to the library directory import tacklelib as tkl  tkl tkl init tkl     cleanup del tkl   must be instead of  tkl   None   otherwise the variable would be still persist sys path pop    tkl import module SOURCE DIR   testlib py    print globals   keys     testlib base test   testlib testlib std1 std1 test   testlib testlib std1 testlib std2 std2 test    testlib testlib std3 std3 test                                 does not reachable directly     getattr globals    testlib     testlib std3   std3 test             but reachable through the  globals     getattr   tkl import module SOURCE DIR   testlib py         print globals   keys     base test   testlib std1 std1 test   testlib std1 testlib std2 std2 test    testlib std3 std3 test                                         does not reachable directly     globals    testlib std3   std3 test                                 but reachable through the  globals     getattr    testlib py     optional for 3 4 x and higher  import os  inspect    SOURCE FILE   os path abspath inspect getsourcefile lambda 0   replace            SOURCE DIR   os path dirname SOURCE FILE   print  1 testlib  SOURCE FILE     SOURCE FILE   tkl import module SOURCE DIR     std1    testlib std1 py    testlib std1      SOURCE DIR is restored here print  2 testlib  SOURCE FILE     SOURCE FILE   tkl import module SOURCE DIR     std3    testlib std3 py    print  3 testlib  SOURCE FILE     SOURCE FILE   def base test      print  base test     testlib std1 py     optional for 3 4 x and higher  import os  inspect    SOURCE FILE   os path abspath inspect getsourcefile lambda 0   replace            SOURCE DIR   os path dirname SOURCE FILE   print  testlib std1  SOURCE FILE     SOURCE FILE   tkl import module SOURCE DIR        std2    testlib std2 py    testlib std2    def std1 test      print  std1 test     testlib std2 py     optional for 3 4 x and higher  import os  inspect    SOURCE FILE   os path abspath inspect getsourcefile lambda 0   replace            SOURCE DIR   os path dirname SOURCE FILE   print  testlib std2  SOURCE FILE     SOURCE FILE   def std2 test      print  std2 test     testlib std3 py     optional for 3 4 x and higher  import os  inspect    SOURCE FILE   os path abspath inspect getsourcefile lambda 0   replace            SOURCE DIR   os path dirname SOURCE FILE   print  testlib std3  SOURCE FILE     SOURCE FILE   def std3 test      print  std3 test     Output  3 7 4    test  SOURCE FILE    lt root gt  test01 test py import    lt root gt  test01 testlib py as testlib - gt     1 testlib  SOURCE FILE    lt root gt  test01 testlib py import    lt root gt  test01 std1 testlib std1 py as testlib std1 - gt    testlib   import    lt root gt  test01 std1    std2 testlib std2 py as testlib std2 - gt    testlib    testlib std1   testlib std2  SOURCE FILE    lt root gt  test01 std1    std2 testlib std2 py 2 testlib  SOURCE FILE    lt root gt  test01 testlib py import    lt root gt  test01 std3 testlib std3 py as testlib std3 - gt    testlib   testlib std3  SOURCE FILE    lt root gt  test01 std3 testlib std3 py 3 testlib  SOURCE FILE    lt root gt  test01 testlib py dict keys     name        doc        package        loader        spec        annotations        builtins        file        cached      os    sys    inspect    copy    SOURCE FILE    SOURCE DIR    TackleGlobalImportModuleState    tkl membercopy    tkl merge module    tkl get parent imported module state    tkl declare global    tkl import module    TackleSourceModuleState    tkl source module    TackleLocalImportModuleState    testlib    base test std1 test std2 test std3 test import    lt root gt  test01 testlib py as   - gt     1 testlib  SOURCE FILE    lt root gt  test01 testlib py import    lt root gt  test01 std1 testlib std1 py as testlib std1 - gt    testlib   import    lt root gt  test01 std1    std2 testlib std2 py as testlib std2 - gt    testlib    testlib std1   testlib std2  SOURCE FILE    lt root gt  test01 std1    std2 testlib std2 py 2 testlib  SOURCE FILE    lt root gt  test01 testlib py import    lt root gt  test01 std3 testlib std3 py as testlib std3 - gt    testlib   testlib std3  SOURCE FILE    lt root gt  test01 std3 testlib std3 py 3 testlib  SOURCE FILE    lt root gt  test01 testlib py dict keys     name        doc        package        loader        spec        annotations        builtins        file        cached      os    sys    inspect    copy    SOURCE FILE    SOURCE DIR    TackleGlobalImportModuleState    tkl membercopy    tkl merge module    tkl get parent imported module state    tkl declare global    tkl import module    TackleSourceModuleState    tkl source module    TackleLocalImportModuleState    testlib    testlib std1    testlib std3    base test    base test std1 test std2 test std3 test   Tested in Python 3 7 4  3 2 5  2 7 16  Pros    Can import both module as a submodule and can import content of a module to a parent module  or into a globals if has no parent module   Can import modules with periods in a file name  Can import any extension module from any extension module  Can use a standalone name for a submodule instead of a file name without extension which is by default  for example  testlib std py as testlib  testlib blabla py as testlib blabla and so on   Does not depend on a sys path or on a what ever search path storage  Does not require to save restore global variables like SOURCE FILE and SOURCE DIR between calls to tkl import module   for 3 4 x and higher  Can mix the module namespaces in nested tkl import module calls  ex  named- gt local- gt named or local- gt named- gt local and so on    for 3 4 x and higher  Can auto export global variables functions classes from where being declared to all children modules imported through the tkl import module  through the tkl declare global function     Cons     for 3 3 x and lower  Require to declare tkl import module in all modules which calls to tkl import module  code duplication    Update 1 2  for 3 4 x and higher only    In Python 3 4 and higher you can bypass the requirement to declare tkl import module in each module by declare tkl import module in a top level module and the function would inject itself to all children modules in a single call  it s a kind of self deploy import    Update 3   Added function tkl source module as analog to bash source with support execution guard upon import  implemented through the module merge instead of import    Update 4   Added function tkl declare global to auto export a module global variable to all children modules where a module global variable is not visible because is not a part of a child module   Update 5   All functions has moved into the tacklelib library  see the link above

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Do you mean load or import   You can manipulate the sys path list specify the path to your module  then import your module  For example  given a module at    foo bar py   You could do   import sys sys path 0 0       foo     puts the  foo directory at the start of your path import bar

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you can do this using    import    and chdir def import file full path to module       try          import os         module dir  module file   os path split full path to module          module name  module ext   os path splitext module file          save cwd   os getcwd           os chdir module dir          module obj     import   module name          module obj   file     full path to module         globals   module name    module obj         os chdir save cwd      except Exception as e          raise ImportError e      return module obj   import file   home somebody somemodule py

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This is my 2 utility functions using only pathlib  It infers the module name from the path By default  it recursively loads all python files from folders and replaces init py by the parent folder name  But you can also give a Path and or a glob to select some specific files  from pathlib import Path from importlib util import spec from file location  module from spec from typing import Optional   def get module from path path  Path  relative to  Optional Path    None       if not relative to          relative to   Path cwd        abs path   path absolute       relative path   abs path relative to relative to absolute        if relative path name     quot   init   py quot           relative path   relative path parent     module name    quot   quot  join relative path with suffix  quot  quot   parts      mod   module from spec spec from file location module name  path       return mod   def get modules from folder folder  Optional Path    None  glob str  str    quot        py quot        if not folder          folder   Path  quot   quot        mod list          for file path in sorted folder glob glob str            mod list append get module from path file path        return mod list

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You can also do something like this and add the directory that the configuration file is sitting in to the Python load path  and then just do a normal import  assuming you know the name of the file in advance  in this case  config    Messy  but it works   configfile      config py   import os import sys  sys path append os path dirname os path expanduser configfile     import config

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In Linux  adding a symbolic link in the directory your python script is located works   ie    ln -s  absolute path to module module py  absolute path to script module py   python will create  absolute path to script module pyc and will update it if you change the contents of  absolute path to module module py  then include the following in mypythonscript py  from module import

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I m not saying that it is better  but for the sake of completeness  I wanted to suggest the exec function  available in both python 2 and 3  exec allows you to execute arbitrary code in either the global scope  or in an internal scope  provided as a dictionary   For example  if you have a module stored in   path to module  with the function foo    you could run it by doing the following   module   dict   with open   path to module   as f      exec f read    module  module  foo       This makes it a bit more explicit that you re loading code dynamically  and grants you some additional power  such as the ability to provide custom builtins    And if having access through attributes  instead of keys is important to you  you can design a custom dict class for the globals  that provides such access  e g    class MyModuleClass dict       def   getattr   self  name           return self   getitem   name

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A simple solution using importlib instead of the imp package  tested for Python 2 7  although it should work for Python 3 too    import importlib  dirname  basename   os path split pyfilepath    pyfilepath    my path mymodule py  sys path append dirname    only directories should be added to PYTHONPATH module name   os path splitext basename  0      my path mymodule py  -- gt   mymodule  module   importlib import module module name    name space of defined module  otherwise we would literally look for  module name     Now you can directly use the namespace of the imported module  like this   a   module myvar b   module myfunc a    The advantage of this solution is that we don t even need to know the actual name of the module we would like to import  in order to use it in our code  This is useful  e g  in case the path of the module is a configurable argument

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If your top-level module is not a file but is packaged as a directory with   init   py  then the accepted solution almost works  but not quite  In Python 3 5  the following code is needed  note the added line that begins with  sys modules     MODULE PATH     path to your module   init   py  MODULE NAME    mymodule  import importlib import sys spec   importlib util spec from file location MODULE NAME  MODULE PATH  module   importlib util module from spec spec  sys modules spec name    module  spec loader exec module module    Without this line  when exec module is executed  it tries to bind relative imports in your top level   init   py to the top level module name -- in this case  mymodule   But  mymodule  isn t loaded yet so you ll get the error  SystemError  Parent module  mymodule  not loaded  cannot perform relative import   So you need to bind the name before you load it  The reason for this is the fundamental invariant of the relative import system   The invariant holding is that if you have sys modules  spam   and sys modules  spam foo    as you would after the above import   the latter must appear as the foo attribute of the former  as discussed here

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You can also do something like this and add the directory that the configuration file is sitting in to the Python load path  and then just do a normal import  assuming you know the name of the file in advance  in this case  config    Messy  but it works   configfile      config py   import os import sys  sys path append os path dirname os path expanduser configfile     import config

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quite simple way  suppose you want import file with relative path       MyLibs pyfunc py   libPath          MyLibs  import sys if not libPath in sys path  sys path append libPath  import pyfunc as pf   But if you make it without a guard you can finally get a very long path

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You can use the pkgutil module  specifically the walk packages method  to get a list of the packages in the current directory  From there it s trivial to use the importlib machinery to import the modules you want   import pkgutil import importlib  packages   pkgutil walk packages path      for importer  name  is package in packages      mod   importlib import module name        do whatever you want with module now  it s been imported

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This is my 2 utility functions using only pathlib  It infers the module name from the path By default  it recursively loads all python files from folders and replaces init py by the parent folder name  But you can also give a Path and or a glob to select some specific files  from pathlib import Path from importlib util import spec from file location  module from spec from typing import Optional   def get module from path path  Path  relative to  Optional Path    None       if not relative to          relative to   Path cwd        abs path   path absolute       relative path   abs path relative to relative to absolute        if relative path name     quot   init   py quot           relative path   relative path parent     module name    quot   quot  join relative path with suffix  quot  quot   parts      mod   module from spec spec from file location module name  path       return mod   def get modules from folder folder  Optional Path    None  glob str  str    quot        py quot        if not folder          folder   Path  quot   quot        mod list          for file path in sorted folder glob glob str            mod list append get module from path file path        return mod list

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It sounds like you don t want to specifically import the configuration file  which has a whole lot of side effects and additional complications involved   you just want to run it  and be able to access the resulting namespace  The standard library provides an API specifically for that in the form of runpy run path   from runpy import run path settings   run path   path to file py     That interface is available in Python 2 7 and Python 3 2

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To import your module  you need to add its directory to the environment variable  either temporarily or permanently   Temporarily  import sys sys path append   path to my modules    import my module   Permanently  Adding the following line to your  bashrc file  in linux  and excecute source    bashrc in the terminal   export PYTHONPATH    PYTHONPATH   path to my modules     Credit Source  saarrrr  another stackexchange question

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This answer is a supplement to Sebastian Rittau s answer responding to the comment   but what if you don t have the module name    This is a quick and dirty way of getting the likely python module name given a filename -- it just goes up the tree until it finds a directory without an   init   py file and then turns it back into a filename   For Python 3 4   uses pathlib   which makes sense since Py2 people can use  imp  or other ways of doing relative imports   import pathlib  def likely python module filename               Given a filename or Path  return the  likely  python module name   That is  iterate     the parent directories until it doesn t contain an   init   py file        rtype  str             p   pathlib Path filename  resolve       paths          if p name       init   py           paths append p stem      while True          p   p parent         if not p              break         if not p is dir                break          inits    f for f in p iterdir   if f name       init   py           if not inits              break          paths append p stem       return     join reversed paths     There are certainly possibilities for improvement  and the optional   init   py files might necessitate other changes  but if you have   init   py in general  this does the trick

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To import a module from a given filename  you can temporarily extend the path  and restore the system path in the finally block reference   filename    directory module py   directory  module name   os path split filename  module name   os path splitext module name  0   path   list sys path  sys path insert 0  directory  try      module     import   module name  finally      sys path      path   restore

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I made a package that uses imp for you  I call it import file and this is how it s used    gt  gt  gt from import file import import file  gt  gt  gt mylib   import file  c   mylib py    gt  gt  gt another   import file  relative subdir another py     You can get it at   http   pypi python org pypi import file  or at  http   code google com p import-file

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you can do this using    import    and chdir def import file full path to module       try          import os         module dir  module file   os path split full path to module          module name  module ext   os path splitext module file          save cwd   os getcwd           os chdir module dir          module obj     import   module name          module obj   file     full path to module         globals   module name    module obj         os chdir save cwd      except Exception as e          raise ImportError e      return module obj   import file   home somebody somemodule py

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There s a package that s dedicated to this specifically   from thesmuggler import smuggle       la  import weapons  weapons   smuggle  weapons py         la  from contraband import drugs  alcohol  drugs  alcohol   smuggle  drugs    alcohol   source  contraband py         la  from contraband import drugs as dope  alcohol as booze  dope  booze   smuggle  drugs    alcohol   source  contraband py     It s tested across Python versions  Jython and PyPy too   but it might be overkill depending on the size of your project

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I m not saying that it is better  but for the sake of completeness  I wanted to suggest the exec function  available in both python 2 and 3  exec allows you to execute arbitrary code in either the global scope  or in an internal scope  provided as a dictionary   For example  if you have a module stored in   path to module  with the function foo    you could run it by doing the following   module   dict   with open   path to module   as f      exec f read    module  module  foo       This makes it a bit more explicit that you re loading code dynamically  and grants you some additional power  such as the ability to provide custom builtins    And if having access through attributes  instead of keys is important to you  you can design a custom dict class for the globals  that provides such access  e g    class MyModuleClass dict       def   getattr   self  name           return self   getitem   name

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Adding this to the list of answers as I couldn t find anything that worked  This will allow imports of compiled  pyd  python modules in 3 4   import sys import importlib machinery  def load module name  filename         If the Loader finds the module name in this list it will use       module name   file   instead so we need to delete it here     if name in sys modules          del sys modules name      loader   importlib machinery ExtensionFileLoader name  filename      module   loader load module       locals   name    module     globals   name    module  load module  something   r C  Path To something pyd   something do something

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I have wrote my own global and portable import function  based on importlib module  for    Be able to import both module as a submodule and to import content of a module to a parent module  or into a globals if has no parent module   Be able to import modules with a period characters in a file name  Be able to import modules with any extension  Be able to use a standalone name for a submodule instead of a file name without extension which is by default  Be able to define the import order based on previously imported module instead of dependent on sys path or on a what ever search path storage    The examples directory structure    lt root gt       - test py      - testlib py      -  std1              - testlib std1 py      -  std2              - testlib std2 py      -  std3              - testlib std3 py   Inclusion dependency and order   test py   - gt  testlib py     - gt  testlib std1 py       - gt  testlib std2 py     - gt  testlib std3 py    Implementation   Latest changes store  https   sourceforge net p tacklelib tacklelib HEAD tree trunk python tacklelib tacklelib py  test py   import os  sys  inspect  copy  SOURCE FILE   os path abspath inspect getsourcefile lambda 0   replace           SOURCE DIR   os path dirname SOURCE FILE   print  test  SOURCE FILE     SOURCE FILE     portable import to the global space sys path append TACKLELIB ROOT    TACKLELIB ROOT - path to the library directory import tacklelib as tkl  tkl tkl init tkl     cleanup del tkl   must be instead of  tkl   None   otherwise the variable would be still persist sys path pop    tkl import module SOURCE DIR   testlib py    print globals   keys     testlib base test   testlib testlib std1 std1 test   testlib testlib std1 testlib std2 std2 test    testlib testlib std3 std3 test                                 does not reachable directly     getattr globals    testlib     testlib std3   std3 test             but reachable through the  globals     getattr   tkl import module SOURCE DIR   testlib py         print globals   keys     base test   testlib std1 std1 test   testlib std1 testlib std2 std2 test    testlib std3 std3 test                                         does not reachable directly     globals    testlib std3   std3 test                                 but reachable through the  globals     getattr    testlib py     optional for 3 4 x and higher  import os  inspect    SOURCE FILE   os path abspath inspect getsourcefile lambda 0   replace            SOURCE DIR   os path dirname SOURCE FILE   print  1 testlib  SOURCE FILE     SOURCE FILE   tkl import module SOURCE DIR     std1    testlib std1 py    testlib std1      SOURCE DIR is restored here print  2 testlib  SOURCE FILE     SOURCE FILE   tkl import module SOURCE DIR     std3    testlib std3 py    print  3 testlib  SOURCE FILE     SOURCE FILE   def base test      print  base test     testlib std1 py     optional for 3 4 x and higher  import os  inspect    SOURCE FILE   os path abspath inspect getsourcefile lambda 0   replace            SOURCE DIR   os path dirname SOURCE FILE   print  testlib std1  SOURCE FILE     SOURCE FILE   tkl import module SOURCE DIR        std2    testlib std2 py    testlib std2    def std1 test      print  std1 test     testlib std2 py     optional for 3 4 x and higher  import os  inspect    SOURCE FILE   os path abspath inspect getsourcefile lambda 0   replace            SOURCE DIR   os path dirname SOURCE FILE   print  testlib std2  SOURCE FILE     SOURCE FILE   def std2 test      print  std2 test     testlib std3 py     optional for 3 4 x and higher  import os  inspect    SOURCE FILE   os path abspath inspect getsourcefile lambda 0   replace            SOURCE DIR   os path dirname SOURCE FILE   print  testlib std3  SOURCE FILE     SOURCE FILE   def std3 test      print  std3 test     Output  3 7 4    test  SOURCE FILE    lt root gt  test01 test py import    lt root gt  test01 testlib py as testlib - gt     1 testlib  SOURCE FILE    lt root gt  test01 testlib py import    lt root gt  test01 std1 testlib std1 py as testlib std1 - gt    testlib   import    lt root gt  test01 std1    std2 testlib std2 py as testlib std2 - gt    testlib    testlib std1   testlib std2  SOURCE FILE    lt root gt  test01 std1    std2 testlib std2 py 2 testlib  SOURCE FILE    lt root gt  test01 testlib py import    lt root gt  test01 std3 testlib std3 py as testlib std3 - gt    testlib   testlib std3  SOURCE FILE    lt root gt  test01 std3 testlib std3 py 3 testlib  SOURCE FILE    lt root gt  test01 testlib py dict keys     name        doc        package        loader        spec        annotations        builtins        file        cached      os    sys    inspect    copy    SOURCE FILE    SOURCE DIR    TackleGlobalImportModuleState    tkl membercopy    tkl merge module    tkl get parent imported module state    tkl declare global    tkl import module    TackleSourceModuleState    tkl source module    TackleLocalImportModuleState    testlib    base test std1 test std2 test std3 test import    lt root gt  test01 testlib py as   - gt     1 testlib  SOURCE FILE    lt root gt  test01 testlib py import    lt root gt  test01 std1 testlib std1 py as testlib std1 - gt    testlib   import    lt root gt  test01 std1    std2 testlib std2 py as testlib std2 - gt    testlib    testlib std1   testlib std2  SOURCE FILE    lt root gt  test01 std1    std2 testlib std2 py 2 testlib  SOURCE FILE    lt root gt  test01 testlib py import    lt root gt  test01 std3 testlib std3 py as testlib std3 - gt    testlib   testlib std3  SOURCE FILE    lt root gt  test01 std3 testlib std3 py 3 testlib  SOURCE FILE    lt root gt  test01 testlib py dict keys     name        doc        package        loader        spec        annotations        builtins        file        cached      os    sys    inspect    copy    SOURCE FILE    SOURCE DIR    TackleGlobalImportModuleState    tkl membercopy    tkl merge module    tkl get parent imported module state    tkl declare global    tkl import module    TackleSourceModuleState    tkl source module    TackleLocalImportModuleState    testlib    testlib std1    testlib std3    base test    base test std1 test std2 test std3 test   Tested in Python 3 7 4  3 2 5  2 7 16  Pros    Can import both module as a submodule and can import content of a module to a parent module  or into a globals if has no parent module   Can import modules with periods in a file name  Can import any extension module from any extension module  Can use a standalone name for a submodule instead of a file name without extension which is by default  for example  testlib std py as testlib  testlib blabla py as testlib blabla and so on   Does not depend on a sys path or on a what ever search path storage  Does not require to save restore global variables like SOURCE FILE and SOURCE DIR between calls to tkl import module   for 3 4 x and higher  Can mix the module namespaces in nested tkl import module calls  ex  named- gt local- gt named or local- gt named- gt local and so on    for 3 4 x and higher  Can auto export global variables functions classes from where being declared to all children modules imported through the tkl import module  through the tkl declare global function     Cons     for 3 3 x and lower  Require to declare tkl import module in all modules which calls to tkl import module  code duplication    Update 1 2  for 3 4 x and higher only    In Python 3 4 and higher you can bypass the requirement to declare tkl import module in each module by declare tkl import module in a top level module and the function would inject itself to all children modules in a single call  it s a kind of self deploy import    Update 3   Added function tkl source module as analog to bash source with support execution guard upon import  implemented through the module merge instead of import    Update 4   Added function tkl declare global to auto export a module global variable to all children modules where a module global variable is not visible because is not a part of a child module   Update 5   All functions has moved into the tacklelib library  see the link above

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You can use the   load source module name  path to file     method from imp module

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If we have scripts in the same project but in different directory means  we can solve this problem by the following method   In this situation utils py is in src main util   import sys sys path append        import src main util utils  or from src main util utils import json converter   json converter is example method

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If we have scripts in the same project but in different directory means  we can solve this problem by the following method   In this situation utils py is in src main util   import sys sys path append        import src main util utils  or from src main util utils import json converter   json converter is example method

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I made a package that uses imp for you  I call it import file and this is how it s used    gt  gt  gt from import file import import file  gt  gt  gt mylib   import file  c   mylib py    gt  gt  gt another   import file  relative subdir another py     You can get it at   http   pypi python org pypi import file  or at  http   code google com p import-file

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Here s a way of loading files sorta like C  etc  from importlib machinery import SourceFileLoader import os  def LOAD  MODULE PATH       if  MODULE PATH   0       quot   quot            FULL PATH   MODULE PATH      else          DIR PATH   os path dirname  os path realpath    file             FULL PATH   os path normpath  DIR PATH    quot   quot    MODULE PATH       return SourceFileLoader  FULL PATH  FULL PATH  load module     Implementations Where  Y   LOAD   quot    Z py quot   A   LOAD   quot   A py quot   D   LOAD   quot   C D py quot   A    LOAD   quot  IMPORTS A py quot    Y DEF     A DEF     D DEF     A  DEF      Where each of the files looks like this  def DEF         print   quot A quot

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For Python 3 5  use   import importlib util spec   importlib util spec from file location  module name     path to file py   foo   importlib util module from spec spec  spec loader exec module foo  foo MyClass     For Python 3 3 and 3 4 use   from importlib machinery import SourceFileLoader  foo   SourceFileLoader  module name     path to file py   load module   foo MyClass      Although this has been deprecated in Python 3 4    For Python 2 use   import imp  foo   imp load source  module name     path to file py   foo MyClass     There are equivalent convenience functions for compiled Python files and DLLs   See also http   bugs python org issue21436

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Do you mean load or import   You can manipulate the sys path list specify the path to your module  then import your module  For example  given a module at    foo bar py   You could do   import sys sys path 0 0       foo     puts the  foo directory at the start of your path import bar

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Here s a way of loading files sorta like C  etc  from importlib machinery import SourceFileLoader import os  def LOAD  MODULE PATH       if  MODULE PATH   0       quot   quot            FULL PATH   MODULE PATH      else          DIR PATH   os path dirname  os path realpath    file             FULL PATH   os path normpath  DIR PATH    quot   quot    MODULE PATH       return SourceFileLoader  FULL PATH  FULL PATH  load module     Implementations Where  Y   LOAD   quot    Z py quot   A   LOAD   quot   A py quot   D   LOAD   quot   C D py quot   A    LOAD   quot  IMPORTS A py quot    Y DEF     A DEF     D DEF     A  DEF      Where each of the files looks like this  def DEF         print   quot A quot

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You can use the pkgutil module  specifically the walk packages method  to get a list of the packages in the current directory  From there it s trivial to use the importlib machinery to import the modules you want   import pkgutil import importlib  packages   pkgutil walk packages path      for importer  name  is package in packages      mod   importlib import module name        do whatever you want with module now  it s been imported

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you can do this using    import    and chdir def import file full path to module       try          import os         module dir  module file   os path split full path to module          module name  module ext   os path splitext module file          save cwd   os getcwd           os chdir module dir          module obj     import   module name          module obj   file     full path to module         globals   module name    module obj         os chdir save cwd      except Exception as e          raise ImportError e      return module obj   import file   home somebody somemodule py

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This area of Python 3 4 seems to be extremely tortuous to understand  However with a bit of hacking using the code from Chris Calloway as a start I managed to get something working  Here s the basic function   def import module from file full path to module               Import a module given the full path filename of the  py file      Python 3 4               module   None      try             Get module name and path from full path         module dir  module file   os path split full path to module          module name  module ext   os path splitext module file             Get module  spec  from filename         spec   importlib util spec from file location module name full path to module           module   spec loader load module        except Exception as ec            Simple error printing           Insert  sophisticated  stuff here         print ec       finally          return module   This appears to use non-deprecated modules from Python 3 4  I don t pretend to understand why  but it seems to work from within a program  I found Chris  solution worked on the command line but not from inside a program

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Do you mean load or import   You can manipulate the sys path list specify the path to your module  then import your module  For example  given a module at    foo bar py   You could do   import sys sys path 0 0       foo     puts the  foo directory at the start of your path import bar

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I believe you can use imp find module   and imp load module   to load the specified module   You ll need to split the module name off of the path  i e  if you wanted to load  home mypath mymodule py you d need to do   imp find module  mymodule     home mypath         but that should get the job done

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I believe you can use imp find module   and imp load module   to load the specified module   You ll need to split the module name off of the path  i e  if you wanted to load  home mypath mymodule py you d need to do   imp find module  mymodule     home mypath         but that should get the job done

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You can use the   load source module name  path to file     method from imp module

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This should work  path   os path join    path to folder with py files      py   for infile in glob glob path       basename   os path basename infile      basename without extension   basename  -3         http   docs python org library imp html highlight imp module-imp     imp load source basename without extension  infile

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This answer is a supplement to Sebastian Rittau s answer responding to the comment   but what if you don t have the module name    This is a quick and dirty way of getting the likely python module name given a filename -- it just goes up the tree until it finds a directory without an   init   py file and then turns it back into a filename   For Python 3 4   uses pathlib   which makes sense since Py2 people can use  imp  or other ways of doing relative imports   import pathlib  def likely python module filename               Given a filename or Path  return the  likely  python module name   That is  iterate     the parent directories until it doesn t contain an   init   py file        rtype  str             p   pathlib Path filename  resolve       paths          if p name       init   py           paths append p stem      while True          p   p parent         if not p              break         if not p is dir                break          inits    f for f in p iterdir   if f name       init   py           if not inits              break          paths append p stem       return     join reversed paths     There are certainly possibilities for improvement  and the optional   init   py files might necessitate other changes  but if you have   init   py in general  this does the trick

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In Linux  adding a symbolic link in the directory your python script is located works   ie    ln -s  absolute path to module module py  absolute path to script module py   python will create  absolute path to script module pyc and will update it if you change the contents of  absolute path to module module py  then include the following in mypythonscript py  from module import

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For Python 3 5  use   import importlib util spec   importlib util spec from file location  module name     path to file py   foo   importlib util module from spec spec  spec loader exec module foo  foo MyClass     For Python 3 3 and 3 4 use   from importlib machinery import SourceFileLoader  foo   SourceFileLoader  module name     path to file py   load module   foo MyClass      Although this has been deprecated in Python 3 4    For Python 2 use   import imp  foo   imp load source  module name     path to file py   foo MyClass     There are equivalent convenience functions for compiled Python files and DLLs   See also http   bugs python org issue21436

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The advantage of adding a path to sys path  over using imp  is that it simplifies things when importing more than one module from a single package   For example   import sys   the mock-0 3 1 dir contains testcase py  testutils py  amp  mock py sys path append   foo bar mock-0 3 1    from testcase import TestCase from testutils import RunTests from mock import Mock  sentinel  patch

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Create python module test py  import sys sys path append   lt project-path gt  lib    from tes1 import Client1 from tes2 import Client2 import tes3   Create python module test check py  from test import Client1 from test import Client2 from test import test3   We can import the imported module from module

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To import a module from a given filename  you can temporarily extend the path  and restore the system path in the finally block reference   filename    directory module py   directory  module name   os path split filename  module name   os path splitext module name  0   path   list sys path  sys path insert 0  directory  try      module     import   module name  finally      sys path      path   restore

[python] How to import a module given the full path?

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