How to run a python script that's inside a subdirectory which has absolute imports

Question

I have the following directory structure and files:

├── a
│   ├── b
│   │   ├── b.py
│   └── c
│       ├── c.py
└── main.py

# main.py
from a.b import b
print('i am main')

# a/b/b.py
from a.c import c
print('i am b')

# a/c/c.py
print('i am c')

The following works just fine and is expected.

» python3 main.py
i am c
i am b
i am main

However, if I go inside the directory a/b and run

python3 b.py

I get:

» python3 b.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "b.py", line 1, in <module>
    from a.c import c
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'a'

And if I try to run it from the root of the project I get

» python3 a/b/b.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "a/b/b.py", line 1, in <module>
    from a.c import c
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'a'

It makes sense that it can't find the module which is one level above the directory but how would one run a/b/b.py script in this scenario?

Ugh, nvm I found out immediately after posting this. Answer is `python3 -m a.b.c` — shriek, May 04 '19 at 16:22
There's a feature in which you can post an answer to your own question — PrinceOfCreation, May 04 '19 at 16:26

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered May 04 '19 at 16:31

0

I'd still like a better explanation on why this works. But I got a hint for this from this answer. You can run

python3 -m a.b.b

to run b.py which is inside a/b/ directory.

answered May 04 '19 at 16:31

shriek

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How to run a python script that's inside a subdirectory which has absolute imports

1 Answers1