Importing from a git sub-module (ImportError)

Question

I get an ImportError when I am importing from a sub-module in the way I thought One Was Supposed To Do It.

I have the following package:

pkg/
  __init__.py
  cow.py
  pizza.py
  pkg.py
  components/
    components.py
    otherstuff.py
    __init__.py

cow.py:

print "Hello"
from components import foodle

components.py:

foodle=5

and the __init__'s are empty.

I am having trouble putting things in the right place or organizing them properly. When, from the pkg directory, I try

from pkg import foodle

I get "ImportError: cannot import name foodle"

What is the right way to arrange files and import from submodules? I have read How to import python file from git submodule ; I have tried messing with sys.path in components/__init__.py and in cow.py, to no avail. This package is shared on git, so it needs to be portable. components is actually a git sub-module.

Putting from components import * in the __init__py in components/ seems to work, but I thought usually that file stays empty.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 15 '19 at 15:00

The elements I was missing are (these are my interpretation, may still be incorrect):

If it's a package (with __init__.py), use it from outside the pkg folder, not from inside. ie, using a package both ways (calling from outside and using modules from within) might be hard to set up, so don't. This is the main insight that solves my problem.
the dot notation for getting submodules and subpackages works both for files and for folders within pkg. Thus, from some other folder, but with pkg in my path, I can call any of the following:
```
import pkg
from pkg.cow import foodle
from pkg.components import foodle
from pkg.components.components import foodle
```

Importing from a git sub-module (ImportError)

1 Answers1