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What would be the best (read: cleanest) way to tell Python to import all modules from some folder?

I want to allow people to put their "mods" (modules) in a folder in my app which my code should check on each startup and import any module put there.

I also don't want an extra scope added to the imported stuff (not "myfolder.mymodule.something", but "something")

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3 Answers 3

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If transforming the folder itself in a module, through the use of a __init__.py file and using from <foldername> import * suits you, you can iterate over the folder contents with "os.listdir" or "glob.glob", and import each file ending in ".py" with the __import__ built-in function:

import os for name in os.listdir("plugins"): if name.endswith(".py"): #strip the extension module = name[:-3] # set the module name in the current global name space: globals()[module] = __import__(os.path.join("plugins", name)

The benefit of this approach is: it allows you to dynamically pass the module names to __import__ - while the ìmport statement needs the module names to be hardcoded, and it allows you to check other things about the files - maybe size, or if they import certain required modules, before importing them.

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2 Comments

This still works in Python3.6, but the last line is changed to: import importlib; importlib.import_module("plugins" + "." + module)
Thanks - they have deprecated the use of filenames in __import__. The funcion still works as well, one just have to use "." there instead of os.path.join
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Create a file named

 __init__.py

inside the folder and import the folder name like this:

>>> from <folder_name> import * #Try to avoid importing everything when you can >>> from <folder_name> import module1,module2,module3 #And so on
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Well then as suggested in the answer linked add the folder in the os.path list and import what you need.
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You might want to try that project: https://gitlab.com/aurelien-lourot/importdir

With this module, you only need to write two lines to import all plugins from your directory and you don't need an extra __init__.py (or any other other extra file):

import importdir importdir.do("plugins/", globals())
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