How do I install a Python package locally without uploading it to PyPi

Question

I know this question has been asked before and their are references on this topic, but none of the instructions seem to work. I have a package titled PyFinances with the following directory structure and I am working on a Macintosh computer with the BigSur OS V11.1

PyFinances
|_PyFinances
|  |_ __init__.py
|  |_ finances.py
|_ data
|_ test
|_ scripts
|_ docs
|_ README.rst
|_ LICENSE
|_ setup.py
|_ Makefile
|_ requirements.txt
|_ .venv

The Makefile has the contents

init:
        pip3 install -r requirements.txt
test:
        pytest -s test

And the setup.py has the following contents

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

# Learn more: https://github.com/kennethreitz/setup.py

from setuptools import setup, find_packages


with open('README.rst') as f:
    readme = f.read()

with open('LICENSE') as f:
    license = f.read()

setup(
    name='PyFinances',
    version='0.1.0',
    description='develops a statistical estimate for the value of checking and savings account',
    long_description=readme,
    author='Jonathan A. Webb',
    author_email='webbja123@gmail.com',
    license=license,
    packages=find_packages(),
    classifiers=[
        "Programming Language :: Python :: 3",
        "Programming Languate :: Python :: 3.9", 
        "Operating System :: MacOS",
    ],
    zip_safe=False,
)

I am trying to install my own code as a package on my system locally without uploading it to PyPi. I am working in a virtual environment and start by installing wheel with the following command when in the uppermost PyFinances directory.

pip3 install wheel

Then I install my package with the following command.

pip3 install .

The installer presents me with the message Successfully installed PyFinances-0.10 , which makes me think everything worked fine. However, if I cd to a totally different directory and open the Python command line interface and type import PyFinances , or try to use a file that uses the same command, I get a ModuleNotFoundError . Can anyone tell me what is wrong with my process for turning my own Python code into a local install?

Answer 1

After much investigating I found that I was using the wrong virtual environment, which prevented me from accessing my package. After changing to the correct.venv file it fixed the problem.