Import statement works on PyCharm but not from terminal

Question

PyCharm 2016.2.3, Mac OS X 10.11.1, Python 3.5 (Homebrew);

I have this folder structure

project   /somepackage     /subpackage      __init__.py         bar.py    __init__.py    foo.py 

foo.py:

import somepackage.subpackage.bar print("foo") 

bar.py:

print("bar") 

So my expected output is

bar foo 

This works fine when run from PyCharm. However, when I run it from my terminal I get an ImportError:

$ pwd $ /home/project (not the actual path; just omitting some personal stuff) $ python3.5 somepackage/foo.py File "foo.py", line 1, in <module> import somepackage.subpackage.bar ImportError: No module named 'somepackage' 

I have found this question, which is about the same problem. However, none of the suggested solutions work for me, as I am indeed using the same Python interpreter as PyCharm does and I am currently in the folder that contains the /somepackage folder.

Does anyone have any other suggestions about how to solve this issue?

Answer 1

You are running foo.py like a script, but you are really using it like a module. So the proper solution is to run it as a module:

python3 -m somepackage.foo 

For the record, another alternative is to edit your path like:

export PYTHONPATH=. 

(Or you could put the absolute directory in there, and of course you should append any other directories that are already in your PYTHONPATH.) This is closer to what PyCharm does, but is less philosophically correct.

Answer 2

Setting PYTHONPATH is what makes it work, as noted above. I use the following VSCODE .env content so that it works for any project:

PYTHONPATH=${PROJ_DIR}:${PYTHONPATH} 

This is essentially what PyCharm does when you check "Add Content Roots to PYTHONPATH" in your run/debug configuration. It's a helpful setting, but it spoils you because your code fails outside PyCharm.

Or, if you run in terminal, first export:

export PYTHONPATH=... 

Took me days to work all this out.