Organization of packages providing the functionality of each other and the main program

Question

I have the following structure in a Python program:

my_program/ main.py packages/ __init.py__ package_to_share/ __init__.py main_to_share.py module_to_share.py package_A/ __init__.py main_A.py some_module_A.py package_B/ __init__.py main_B.py some_module_B.py 

The package_to_share package provides the functionality that each package in the packages folder uses and what main.py in the root folder uses.

I also want to be able to cd in every package and be able to run main_X.py .

So far, I've been figuring out how to access functions from main.py :

 import packages.package_A.some_module_A import packages.package_to_share.module_to_share 

but I am having problems accessing functions in package_to_share from regular packages (e.g. package_A )

For example, if you cannot enter import packages.package_to_share.module_to_share in main_A.py or some_module_A.py .

This leads me to the following questions:

• Given the specifics of my problem, with packages that will be available (accessible) by files in the root folder and other packages, is there a better way to organize my folders? Does this organization of modules and files generally comply with good standards in Python?

• The following looks unbelievably hacked to me, but this is the best I've come up with to make sure my regular modules see the "shared" modules:

   p_this_file = os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__)) new_sys_path.append(os.path.join(p_cwd, '..') new_sys_path.extend(sys.path) sys.path = new_sys_path 

  It also does not prevent my regular packages from importing each other.

Answer 1

Instead of manipulating the import path (which I do not recommend), you can use relative imports in module_A :

 from .. import shared 

This is what I sometimes do, although I usually have my packages installed, so I can fully reference them where I need to use them:

 from my_module import shared