CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonpython-2.7python-import
schwarz
schwarz

Reputation: 521

How to import modules from adjacent package without setting PYTHONPATH

I have a python 2.7 project which I have structured as below:

project
    |
    |____src
    |       |
    |       |__pkg
    |           |
    |           |__ __init__.py
    |       
    |____test
            |
            |__test_pkg
            |       |
            |       |__ __init__.py
            |
            |__helpers
            |       |
            |       |__ __init__.py
            |
            |__ __init__.py

I am setting the src folder to the PYTHONPATH, so importing works nicely in the packages inside src. I am using eclipse, pylint inside eclipse and nosetests in eclipse as well as via bash and in a make file (for project). So I have to satisfy lets say every stakeholder!

The problem is importing some code from the helpers package in test. Weirdly enough, my test is also a python package with __init__.py containing some top level setUp and tearDown method for all tests. So when I try this:

import helpers
from helpers.blaaa import Blaaa

in some module inside test_pkg, all my stakeholders are not satisfied. I get the ImportError: No module named ... and pylint also complains about not finding it. I can live with pylint complaining in test folders but nosetests is also dying if I run it in the project directory and test directory. I would prefer not to do relative imports with dot (.).

Upvotes: 1

Views: 358

Answers (1)

Goswin von Brederlow
Goswin von Brederlow

Reputation: 12322

The problem is that you can not escape the current directory by importing from ..helpers.

But if you start your test code inside the test directory with

python3 -m test_pkg.foo

the current directory will be the test directory and importing helpers will work. On the minus side that means you have to import from . inside test_pkg.

Upvotes: 1

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