Import python package from local directory into interpreter

Question

I\'m developing/testing a package in my local directory. I want to import it in the interpreter (v2.5), but sys.path does not include the current directory. Right now I type

Answer 1

A bit late to the party, but this is what worked for me:

>>> import sys
>>> sys.path.insert(0, '')

Apparently, if there is an empty string, Python knows that it should look in the current directory. I did not have the empty string in sys.path, which caused this error.

Answer 2

If you want to run an unmodified python script so it imports libraries from a specific local directory you can set the PYTHONPATH environment variable - e.g. in bash:

export PYTHONPATH=/home/user/my_libs
python myscript.py

If you just want it to import from the current working directory use the . notation:

export PYTHONPATH=.
python myscript.py

Answer 3

Using sys.path should include current directory already.

Try:

import .

or:

from . import sth

however it may be not a good practice, so why not just use:

import mypackage

Answer 4

I used pathlib to add my module directory to my system path as I wanted to avoid installing the module as a package and @maninthecomputer response didn't work for me

import sys
from pathlib import Path

cwd = str(Path(__file__).parent)
sys.path.insert(0, cwd)
from my_module import my_function

Answer 5

See the documentation for sys.path:

http://docs.python.org/library/sys.html#sys.path

To quote:

If the script directory is not available (e.g. if the interpreter is invoked interactively or if the script is read from standard input), path[0] is the empty string, which directs Python to search modules in the current directory first.

So, there's no need to monkey with sys.path if you're starting the python interpreter from the directory containing your module.

Also, to import your package, just do:

import mypackage

Since the directory containing the package is already in sys.path, it should work fine.

Answer 6

Keep it simple:

 try:
     from . import mymodule     # "myapp" case
 except:
     import mymodule            # "__main__" case