CODEWITHSUNDEEP
python
Eli
Eli

Reputation: 39009

Correct Structure for Python Project Containing a Package and Scripts?

I'm currently working on a project that has a custom designed Python package, along with a bunch of scripts that use that package. What's the best way of structuring this such that I can run the scripts from anywhere without getting package not found errors? I'd like to build tests for the package as well, so I was thinking of having something like:

project/
|--src
|   |--some_package
|--test
|--scripts

But then I'm not sure how to have the scripts import my custom package such that I can run/reference the scripts from anywhere without "package can't be found" errors. Any help is appreciated!

Upvotes: 0

Views: 281

Answers (2)

Abizern
Abizern

Reputation: 150745

There is documentation for this at the Hitch Hikers Guide to Packaging

Upvotes: 2

alan
alan

Reputation: 4852

One way to install and run these scripts on other machines is to package them up using distutils. See http://docs.python.org/library/distutils.html.

Otherwise, if you put an __init__.py file into a directory on your tree, Python will see the directory as a package and will allow you to import modules from it. For example, if you have this structure:

project/
|some_script.py
    |--some_package 
        |__init__.py
        |some_module.py
|--test
    |__init__.py
|--scripts
    |__init__.py

in some_script.py you could do this:

import some_package.some_module

That will allow you to do imports from subdirectories without an elaborate installation to put your modules somewhere in the Python path. The same thing can be done for the 'test' and 'scripts' directories. (You probably already know this, but __init__.py can just be an empty file.)

Upvotes: 0

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