Why is pip editable install causing issue with subpackages?

Question:

The Problem

I’m having an issue using editable install for my package. Inside my package I have three subpackages as shown in my setup.py file. Everything works fine if I install with pip install ., but if I install with pip install -e . then I’ll get the following error when attempting to run the CLI relctl:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/my_username/.virtualenvs/rawp3/bin/relctl", line 11, in <module>
    load_entry_point('tech-control', 'console_scripts', 'relctl')()
  File "/Users/my_username/.virtualenvs/rawp3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 490, in load_entry_point
    return get_distribution(dist).load_entry_point(group, name)
  File "/Users/my_username/.virtualenvs/rawp3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2859, in load_entry_point
    return ep.load()
  File "/Users/my_username/.virtualenvs/rawp3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2450, in load
    return self.resolve()
  File "/Users/my_username/.virtualenvs/rawp3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2456, in resolve
    module = __import__(self.module_name, fromlist=['__name__'], level=0)
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'tech_control.cli'

On further inspection I find that I’m not able to import any subpackages. E.g. The following will fail:
import tech_control.boards
Fails with: ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'tech_control.boards'

My Package Directory

tech_control/
├── __init__.py
├── boards
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── board_base.py
│   ├── tech8ch.py
│   └── wiring.py
├── cli
│   ├── __init__.py
│   └── cli.py
└── setup.py

Setup.py

from setuptools import setup

setup(
    name="tech_control",
    version="0.1.0",
    description="CLI for Tech Boards",
    packages=["tech_control", "tech_control.boards", "tech_control.cli"],
    package_dir={
        "tech_control": "",
        "tech_control.boards": "boards",
        "tech_control.cli": "cli"},
    install_requires=["pyusb"],
    entry_points={
        "console_scripts": [
            "relctl = tech_control.cli.cli:main"
        ]
    },
)

Question

Why is my editable install preventing me from accessing subpackages?

Asked By: Klik

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Source

Answers:

As far as I know, editable installations do not work with changes to the directory structure, as done with package_dir.

Changing the root directory is OK, though:

package_dir={'': 'path/to/root'}

References:

Aside:

There is currently an ongoing effort towards a new design for editable installations. Most likely the combination with the rewrite of the directory structure is probably not in scope, as it’s probably not a use case that comes up often enough to make it worth the additional code complexity to support this.

Answered By: sinoroc