pip installing a package with the same namespace as a local package

Question

I am using Python 3.6.5, installed via miniconda. My issue is arising from the fact that I'm pip installing a package that has the same namespace as a local package. After pip installing this package, I can no longer import from the local package. I receive a ModuleNotFoundError error. The namespaces need to stay this way, if possible.

Here is my directory structure:

/root
  stuff
    - __init__.py
    - my_stuff.py
  app.py

init .py

__import__('pkg_resources').declare_namespace(__name__)

app.py

from stuff.my_stuff import my_fun

This works fine until I pip install the package with the same namespace, "stuff". After pip installing the package, the import statement, from stuff.my_stuff import my_fun throws the following error: ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'stuff.my_stuff' . I kind of understand why. When importing modules in Python, it will look for built-in modules first, then sys.path, PYTHONPATH etc...

Here's the part thats really confusing me. If I create another arbitrary local module, like some_stuff , as shown below:

/root
  stuff
    - __init__.py
    - my_stuff.py
  some_stuff
    - __init__.py
    - more_stuff.py
  app.py

and if I then run:

app.py

from some_stuff.more_stuff import more_fun
from stuff.my_stuff import my_fun

Everything works as expected. ie if I import some_stuff.more_stuff before stuff.my_stuff , everything works. But not vice versa. Solely importing stuff.my_stuff causes the ModuleNotFoundError .

app.py

# The code above works, but this causes the error
from stuff.my_stuff import my_fun

What is causing this behaviour? How can I solve this issue of locally referencing a package with the same namespace as one that was pip installed?

Edit:

I continued experimenting and noticed that when I remove all __init__.py files, everything works as expected. I came across this post : Since Python 3.3, a folder without an __init__.py can be considered part of an implicit namespace package. I'm still confused about the behaviour mentioned above though.

Answer 1

This SO question should answer your question

I am still putting the original answer here for convenience.

---

It's not possible to change "import path" (installed name) by specifying arguments to pip. You can, however, make some changes to the package after installing:

• use pip install -e git+http://some_url#egg=some-name that way even if both packages have the same import path, they will be saved under different directories (using some-name provided after #egg=). After this you can go to the source directories of packages (usually venv/src/some-name ) and rename some folders to change import paths

• fork the repository, make changes, then install the package from that repository. Or you can publish your package on PyPI using different name and install it by that name

• use pip download to put one of the packages in your project, then rename folders as you like