Python paths/import in standalone programs

Question

I'm writing a package that is a small application. It is distributed with portable Python, so code has no access to Windows settings.

The program has this structure:

mypr
 __init__.py
 gui
 __init.__.py
 prlib
 __init__.py

I am trying to do this from mypr.gui import Gui in prlib but, of course, mypr is not defined. I could add it to win path, edit pth file or append sys.path with the current directory, but: this will be a portable application and directory will change.

So, how can I be sure that Python will always have mypr in the path, both during development and deployment? Without changing *.pth or editing Windows PATH. Is there some reasonable hack during runtime to link mypr?

Or, is it possible to import a package "relatively"? I tried from .gui import Gui, but no luck.

Answer 1

If you just want to be able to access the 'gui' module in the directory above 'prlib' you can achieve that by:

import os
import sys
sys.path.append(os.path.join(os.dirname(__file__), '../'))

Then you should be able to import 'gui' via:

from gui import Gui