VS Code pylint(import-error) "Unable to import" subsub-module from custom directory

Question

I have organized my self-written Python scripts within a tree of several sub-directories, starting from the parent directory "Scripts" which is already included in "python.autoComplete.extraPaths" within the settings-json:

"python.autoComplete.extraPaths": ["/home/andylu/Dokumente/Allgemeines_material/Sonstiges/Programming/Python/Scripts",
                                       "/home/andylu/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages"]

Apart from that, I've included a Python environment-file:

"python.envFile": "/home/andylu/Dokumente/Allgemeines_material/Sonstiges/Programming/Visual_studio_code/vscode_own_scripts.env"

which contains the line

export PYTHONPATH=/home/andylu/Dokumente/Allgemeines_material/Sonstiges/Programming/Python/Scripts:/home/andylu/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages

All of this worked out great before, where all my scripts were distributed just over 1 single directory level, like so:

+---Scripts
|   +---General
|   |   +---script_one.py
|   |   +---script_two.py

When I imported within any python-script e.g. script_one.py, I started the script with

import sys
sys.path.append(
    "/home/andylu/Dokumente/Allgemeines_material/Sonstiges/Programming/Python/Scripts/"
)

import General.script_one as one

and pylint recognized this imported script correctly without throwing the aforementioned VS Code pylint(import-error).

---

Now, the situation is different. The scripts had become so many, that I split up the subfolder General to contain an additional sub-directory level in order to get the scripts organized more lucidly:

+---Scripts
|   +---General
|   |   +---Plotting
|   |   |   +---script_one.py
|   |   |   +---script_two.py
|   |   +---Misc
|   |   |   +---script_three.py
|   |   |   +---script_four.py
....

When starting a Python script with e.g. the following lines, I get the VS Code pylint(import-error) for each of following imports.

# Package importing

import sys
sys.path.append(
    "/home/andylu/Dokumente/Allgemeines_material/Sonstiges/Programming/Python/Scripts/"
)

import General.Plotting.auxiliary_plotting_functions as aux_plot
import General.Plotting.plotting as plot

#%%
# TIME MEASUREMENT for the entire code/function
import General.Misc.timing

I don't know why pylint stopped recognizing the imports all of the sudden, just because I added an additional sub-directory level. I would like these senseless pylint import errors to disappear, since effectively the subsub-models are being imported correctly when executing the codes.

I even tried to modify the .pylintrc - file, which lies under /home/andylu/anaconda3/pkgs/pylint-2.3.1-py37_0/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pylint/test/regrtest_data/.pylintrc :

[MASTER]

optimize-ast=no

init-hook='import sys; sys.path.append("/home/andylu/Dokumente/Allgemeines_material/Sonstiges/Programming/Python/Scripts")'

Adding the init-hook - line had no effect either.

Answer 1

Two things. One, add __init__.py files to all of your sub-directories to make them proper packages.

Two, you shouldn't need to directly add the site-packages directory. If that's the Python environment you're using then you need to make sure to select it from within the extension.