当我要从源代码运行和使用setuptools安装时都应使用什么导入系统？

Question

Consider this application:

.
├── LICENSE
├── MANIFEST.in
├── program
│   ├── apple.py
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── __main__.py
│   ├── nonfruit.py
│   ├── pear.py
│   ├── strawberry.py
│   └── vegetables
│       ├── carrot.py
│       ├── __init__.py
│       └── lettuce.py
├── README.md
├── setup.cfg
└── setup.py

__main__.py is the file that users should run to use my program. I am distributing my program via PyPI and so I want to be able to install it via pip as well. Because of that, I created a setup.py file with an entry point:

entry_points = {
      'console_scripts': ['pg=program.__main__:main']}

The problem I'm facing is that there are several imports in my program, and these result in the situation that my program does run 'locally' (by executing python ./__main__.py , but not from installation (by running pg ). Or, depending on the way I import it, the other way around.

__main__.py imports nonfruit.py :

from nonfruit import Nonfruit

nonfruit.py imports vegetables/carrot.py :

import vegetables.carrot
ca = vegetables.carrot.Carrot()

I would like to hear some advice in structuring my project regarding imports, so that it runs both locally and from setuptools installation. For example, should I use absolute imports or relative imports? And should I use from X import Y or import XY ?

Answer 1

I found a solution on Jan-Philip Gehrcke's website .

The instructions are written for use with Python 3, but I applied it to Python 2.7 with success. The problem I was having originated from my directory becoming a package. Jan advices to create one file to run it from source ( bootstrap-runner.py ) and one file to run it from installation ( bootstrap/__main__.py ). Furthermore, he advices to use explicit relative imports:

from .X import Y

This will probably be a good guideline in the next applications I'm writing.