Making module content available in parent module

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Tue, 23 Nov 2010 11:36:05 +0100, Ulrich Eckhardt wrote:


>  tests/
>    foo.py # defines TestFoo1 and TestFoo2 
>    bar.py # defines TestBar1 and TestBar2
> 
> What I would like to do now is this:
> 
>  from tests import *
>  unittest.main()
> 
> In other words, import all test files and run them. This does import
> them, but it turns out that I end up with modules foo and bar, and the
> unittests inside those are not found.

Given the directory structure you show, I find that hard to believe. You 
should get an ImportError, as there is no module or package called 
"tests".

But suppose you turn tests into a proper package:

tests/
  __init__.py
  foo.py
  bar.py

You could have __init__.py include these lines:

from foo import *
from bar import *


Then later, when you do this:

from tests import * 

it will pick up everything from foo and bar, and unittest.main() should 
run those tests as well. I think.

Or you could just do:

for module in (foo, bar):
    try:
        unittest.main(module)
    except SystemExit:
        pass



> PS: I've been trying a few things here, and stumbled across another
> thing that could provide a solution. I can "from tests import *", but
> then all these modules will pollute my namespace. I can "import tests", 
> but then neither of the submodules will be in "tests". I tried "import
> tests.*", but that doesn't work. Is there no way to import a whole
> package but with its namespace?

The package needs to know what submodules to make available. Put inside 
__init__.py:


import foo
import bar



and then from outside the package, do this:

import tests

Now tests.foo and tests.bar will exist.


-- 
Steven