Embedding a Python library in my own package

Question

How can I \'embed\' a Python library in my own Python package?

Take the Requests library, for instance. How could I integrate it into my own package, the objective b

Answer 1

If it's a pure python library (no compiled modules) you can simply place the library in a folder in your project and add that folder to your module search path. Here's an example project:

|- application.py
|- lib
|  `- ...
|- docs
|  `- ...
`- vendor
   |- requests
   |  |- __init__.py
   |  `- ...
   `- other libraries...

The vendor folder in this example contains all third party modules. The file application.py would contain this:

import os
import sys

# Add vendor directory to module search path
parent_dir = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
vendor_dir = os.path.join(parent_dir, 'vendor')

sys.path.append(vendor_dir)

# Now you can import any library located in the "vendor" folder!
import requests

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Bonus fact

As noted by seeafish in the comments, you can install packages directly into the vendor directory:

pip install  -t /path/to/vendor_dir