Running Python on a module with relative imports from another directory

Question

Say that under /path/to/foo I have package with a python module:

/path/to/foo:
           | my_package
                        | __init__.py
                        | my_module.py

           | my_other_package
                        | __init__.py
                        | my_other_module.py

The file my_module.py does a relative import of my_other_module.py as follows:

  from ..my_other_package import my_other_module

I understand that I can do the following from the shell:

> cd /path/to/foo
> python -m my_package.my_module

But what if I don't want to change my current directory? Is there any way to run my module from the shell without having to change PYTHONPATH?

I tried the following:

python -m /path/to/foo/my_package.my_module

but that didn't work. I got: Import by filename is not supported.

Have you tried using a symlink from my_package to my_other_package/my_other_module.py? — Chris Barker
– Chris Barker, Commented Jul 22, 2013 at 22:51
Have you tried adding a __init__.py to /path/to/foo as well? I don't think you can do this if foo is not a package in itself. — Gustav Larsson
– Gustav Larsson, Commented Jul 22, 2013 at 23:07

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 10:25:15Z

1

Get the relative path:

base_path = os.path.abspath('../my_other_package/') #or any relative directory

append this to the system path (only temporary, will be deleted after execution): sys.path.append(base_path)

import the file you need in that path: import my_other_module.py

I believe it you may need a file named __init__.py (with nothing in it) if you wanted to import the file as import directory.file (correct me if I'm wrong).

This thread shows alternate approaches.

edited May 23, 2017 at 10:25

CommunityBot

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answered Jul 22, 2013 at 23:04

Couchy

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1 Comment

Amelio Vazquez-Reina Over a year ago

Thanks. I have read that tampering with sys.path is not a good idea, but I guess this the best I could do..

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