How to import module from parent directory without sys.path?

Question

I am trying to call a module from a parent package.

My project structure -

be/
  __init__.py
  api/
    __init__.py
    models.py
  alembic/
    env.py

How to call models.py inside env.py

I tried like below,

from api.models import Base

I get the error - ImportError: No module named 'api'

I thought of restructuring by putting the alembic directory inside api directory, still not able to import models.

Using sys.path looks hacky, if I should change the project structure, then please suggest.

Answer 1

You can use relative import

inside env.py, you only need from ..api.models import Base

If you don't want to use relative import, you can also try absolute import like

from be.api.models import Base

provided that you have exported the PYTHONPATH to be by

path_to_be=''
export PYTHONPATH=$path_to_be:$PATH