How do I properly import python modules in a multi directory project?

The problem here is the path, Consider this directory structure

main
 - utils/something.py
 - utils/other.py
 imptest.py

When you try to import other using relative path in to something.py, then you would do something like from . import other. This would work when you execute $ python something.py but would fail when you run $ python imptest.py because in the second scenario it searches for main/other.py which doesn't exist.

So inorder to fix this issue, I would suggest that you write unit tests for something.py & other.py and run them using $ python -m (mod) command. ( I highly recommend this approach )

But.... if you really what your existing code to work without much modification then you can add these 2 lines in something.py file ( this works, but I don't recommend this approach )

import sys, os
sys.path.append(os.getcwd()) # Adding path to this module folder into sys path
import utils.other as other

def do_something():
    print("I am doing something")


def main():
    """
    Main function
    """

    do_something()
    other.do_other()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Here are some references to get better understanding:

• Unit testing in python
• Absolute vs Relative Imports in python