Keeping Python packages with the same top-level name in different directories

Question

I have several Python packages that I'd like to keep on separate filesystems but which unfortunately share the same top-level module name.

To illustrate, the directory structure looks like this:

/fs1
  /top
    __init__.py
    /sub1
      __init__.py

/fs2
  /top
    __init__.py
    /sub2
      __init__.py

In Python 2.7, is there any way I can set up my PYTHONPATH so that I could import both top.sub1 and top.sub2 into the same script? Adding both /fs1 and /fs2 doesn't work, since it only allows one of the two submodules to be imported (whichever comes first on PYTHONPATH).

I could copy/symlink the two trees into one, but for practical reasons I'd rather not do that.

Yes, there is a way, and it's called "namespace packages". stackoverflow.com/questions/1675734/… Note that if you do this, the top package has to be empty, that namespace can not contain anything except the sub1 and sub2 packages. — Lennart Regebro
– Lennart Regebro, Commented Jul 20, 2013 at 6:15

Glorfindel · Accepted Answer · 2021-04-17 05:50:21Z

1

There are several options, one of which is imp:

import imp

foo = imp.load_source('module.name', '/path/to/file.py')
foo.MyClass()

(my source)

Another is with importlib

Relative:

importlib.import_module('.sub1', 'fs1.top')

Absolute:

importlib.import_module('fs1.top.sub1')

(my source)

edited Apr 17, 2021 at 5:50

Glorfindel

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answered Mar 30, 2015 at 20:09

philshem

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