Why not being able to call modules from lib folder into test folder although I have __init__.py file both?

[Arup Rakshit]

On 26/04/19 11:14 AM, dieter wrote:
> Arup Rakshit <ar at zeit.io> writes:
>> I am not able to call modules from lib folder in my test folder, but outside of tests folder I can access them. How should I fix this?
>>
>> Mocks$ tree .
>> .
>> ├── lib
>> │   ├── __init__.py
>> │   ├── __pycache__
>> │   │   ├── __init__.cpython-37.pyc
>> │   │   └── product.cpython-37.pyc
>> │   └── product.py
>> └── tests
>>      ├── __init__.py
>>      └── product_test.py
>>
>> 3 directories, 6 files
>> Mocks$ python3
>> ...
>>>>> from lib.product import ProductionKlass
>> ...
>>>>> ProductionKlass()
>> <lib.product.ProductionKlass object at 0x10d5f2128>
>> ...
>> Mocks$ python3 tests/product_test.py
>> Traceback (most recent call last):
>>    File "tests/product_test.py", line 4, in <module>
>>      from lib.product import ProductionKlass
>> ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'lib'
> Python's import is controlled by "sys.path" -- typically a sequence of
> folders where Python should look for modules/packages to import.
>
> When you start a Python script, it puts the folder containing
> the script automatically on "sys.path" (to facilitate imports
> by this script). When you start Python interactively, it puts
> the current working directory on "sys.path".
>
> These differences explain your observations.
> In the first case, "lib" can be imported because
> the current working directory has been put on "sys.path".
> In the second case, "lib" cannot be imported because the subfolder
> "tests" has been put on "sys.path" (not the current working directory
> itself).
>
>
> A modern approach to avoid such situations looks like:
>
>   * make your project into a package
>     (see "https://packaging.python.org/")
>
>   * use either package relative imports or absolute imports with
>     the package as prefix to access modules in your package
>
>   * install your package into a Python installation
>     (use "virtualenv" to get a light weight local Python installation,
>     if necessary)
>
>   * have tiny script wrappers for scripts in your package.
>     Packageing tools (such as "setuptools"
>     --> "https://setuptools.readthedocs.io/en/latest/")
>     can create thoses wrappers for you on installation.
>
Thanks for explaining this. I read this and couple of internet blogs on  
this, one of them is https://alex.dzyoba.com/blog/python-import/ . I get it.

-- 
Thanks,

Arup Rakshit