python setuptools entry point script can't find module

Question

I have the feeling I am missing some point here, and googling didn't get me far.

I am using setuptools for a command line script. All goes fine but after installation my own files are not "seen" by the automatically generated script of the entry-point. Imagine the following case:

file a.py contains:

a = 12

file __main__.py contains:

from a import a

def main():
    print(a)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

file __init__.py is empty. File setup.py contains:

from setuptools import setup, find_packages

setup(
    name='tep',
    packages=find_packages(),
    version='0.0.1',
    entry_points={
        'console_scripts': [
            'tep = tep.__main__:main'
        ]
    },
)

all are properly located in the directory structure:

• test_entry_point
  • tep
    • __init__.py
    • __main__.py
    • a.py
  • setup.py

Locally all works well. But after installation:

sudo -H python setup.py install

and invoking from a different shell either by using tep or by using python -m tep, I get the following error:

ImportError: No module named 'a'

So the file a.py is not visible in the scope after installation . Any ideas?

thanks.

Answer 1

That happens because you haven't specified an absolute path of the a module. Remember, a is in package tep. So you need to import like this in __main__.py:

from tep.a import a