Check if module exists, if not install it

Question

I want to check if a module exists, if it doesn't I want to install it.

How should I do this?

So far I have this code which correctly prints f if the module doesn't exist.

try:
    import keyring
except ImportError:
    print 'f'

Answer 1

Here is how it should be done, and if I am wrong, please correct me. However, Noufal seems to confirm it in another answer to this question, so I guess it's right.

When writing the setup.py script for some scripts I wrote, I was dependent on the package manager of my distribution to install the required library for me.

So, in my setup.py file, I did this:

package = 'package_name'
try:
    return __import__(package)
except ImportError:
    return None

So if package_name was installed, fine, continue. Else, install it via the package manager which I called using subprocess.