Hi, 

I hope this is the right place to ask this question. I have also submitted an issue at https://github.com/PyCQA/pylint/issues/2726.

I'm currently researching how to build static bug checkers of python packages in the Robot Operating System (http://www.ros.org) at the IT University of Copenhagen. 

I have a few questions related to the possibility of using pylint in order to build some of these checkers. 

It is possible to create so-called packages in ROS using Python (among other languages). I'm trying to see if it is possible to verify that the imported modules in these packages exist with pylint, but I'm having a hard time getting the expected behaviour (I have too many false positives). 

I'd like to verify whether these declared modules exist based on the requirement specification (a list of modules) of the ROS package - without installing all the required modules using e.g. pip. 

I have tried using the parameter `--extension-pkg-whitelist=packagename` but I am still getting false positives. 

What I'm wondering is: 

* Do I have to install all the declared modules using e.g. pip in order for pylint to detect them correctly? That would pretty much defeat the purpose of the checker I’m developing. 

* Is it possible to feed pylint a requirements.txt (or a similar format) that will then allow pylint to detect these imports as non-errors (again without installing)? 

Thanks for any answers in advance,

Anders Fischer