# `pkgutil` — Package extension utility

Source code: Lib/pkgutil.py

This module provides utilities for the import system, in particular package support.

class `pkgutil.``ModuleInfo`(module_finder, name, ispkg)

  A namedtuple that holds a brief summary of a module’s info.

  New in version 3.6.

`pkgutil.``extend_path`(path, name)

  Extend the search path for the modules which comprise a package. Intended use is to place the following code in a package’s `__init__.py`:

      from pkgutil import extend_path
      __path__ = extend_path(__path__, __name__)

  This will add to the package’s `__path__` all subdirectories of directories on `sys.path` named after the package. This is useful if one wants to distribute different parts of a single logical package as multiple directories.

  It also looks for `*.pkg` files beginning where `*` matches the name argument. This feature is similar to `*.pth` files (see the `site` module for more information), except that it doesn’t special-case lines starting with `import`. A `*.pkg` file is trusted at face value: apart from checking for duplicates, all entries found in a `*.pkg` file are added to the path, regardless of whether they exist on the filesystem. (This is a feature.)

  If the input path is not a list (as is the case for frozen packages) it is returned unchanged. The input path is not modified; an extended copy is returned. Items are only appended to the copy at the end.

  It is assumed that `sys.path` is a sequence. Items of `sys.path` that are not strings referring to existing directories are ignored. Unicode items on `sys.path` that cause errors when used as filenames may cause this function to raise an exception (in line with `os.path.isdir()` behavior).

class `pkgutil.``ImpImporter`(dirname=None)

  PEP 302 Finder that wraps Python’s “classic” import algorithm.

  If dirname is a string, a PEP 302 finder is created that searches that directory. If dirname is `None`, a PEP 302 finder is created that searches the current `sys.path`, plus any modules that are frozen or built-in.

  Note that `ImpImporter` does not currently support being used by placement on `sys.meta_path`.

  Deprecated since version 3.3: This emulation is no longer needed, as the standard import mechanism is now fully PEP 302 compliant and available in `importlib`.

class `pkgutil.``ImpLoader`(fullname, file, filename, etc)

  Loader that wraps Python’s “classic” import algorithm.

  Deprecated since version 3.3: This emulation is no longer needed, as the standard import mechanism is now fully PEP 302 compliant and available in `importlib`.

`pkgutil.``find_loader`(fullname)

  Retrieve a module loader for the given fullname.

  This is a backwards compatibility wrapper around `importlib.util.find_spec()` that converts most failures to `ImportError` and only returns the loader rather than the full `ModuleSpec`.

  Changed in version 3.3: Updated to be based directly on `importlib` rather than relying on the package internal PEP 302 import emulation.

  Changed in version 3.4: Updated to be based on PEP 451

`pkgutil.``get_importer`(path_item)

  Retrieve a finder for the given path_item.

  The returned finder is cached in `sys.path_importer_cache` if it was newly created by a path hook.

  The cache (or part of it) can be cleared manually if a rescan of `sys.path_hooks` is necessary.

  Changed in version 3.3: Updated to be based directly on `importlib` rather than relying on the package internal PEP 302 import emulation.

`pkgutil.``get_loader`(module_or_name)

  Get a loader object for module_or_name.

  If the module or package is accessible via the normal import mechanism, a wrapper around the relevant part of that machinery is returned. Returns `None` if the module cannot be found or imported. If the named module is not already imported, its containing package (if any) is imported, in order to establish the package `__path__`.

  Changed in version 3.3: Updated to be based directly on `importlib` rather than relying on the package internal PEP 302 import emulation.

  Changed in version 3.4: Updated to be based on PEP 451

`pkgutil.``iter_importers`(fullname='')

  Yield finder objects for the given module name.

  If fullname contains a `'.'`, the finders will be for the package containing fullname, otherwise they will be all registered top level finders (i.e. those on both `sys.meta_path` and `sys.path_hooks`).

  If the named module is in a package, that package is imported as a side effect of invoking this function.

  If no module name is specified, all top level finders are produced.

  Changed in version 3.3: Updated to be based directly on `importlib` rather than relying on the package internal PEP 302 import emulation.

`pkgutil.``iter_modules`(path=None, prefix='')

  Yields `ModuleInfo` for all submodules on path, or, if path is `None`, all top-level modules on `sys.path`.

  path should be either `None` or a list of paths to look for modules in.

  prefix is a string to output on the front of every module name on output.

  Note

  Only works for a finder which defines an `iter_modules()` method. This interface is non-standard, so the module also provides implementations for `importlib.machinery.FileFinder` and `zipimport.zipimporter`.

  Changed in version 3.3: Updated to be based directly on `importlib` rather than relying on the package internal PEP 302 import emulation.

`pkgutil.``walk_packages`(path=None, prefix='', onerror=None)

  Yields `ModuleInfo` for all modules recursively on path, or, if path is `None`, all accessible modules.

  path should be either `None` or a list of paths to look for modules in.

  prefix is a string to output on the front of every module name on output.

  Note that this function must import all packages (not all modules!) on the given path, in order to access the `__path__` attribute to find submodules.

  onerror is a function which gets called with one argument (the name of the package which was being imported) if any exception occurs while trying to import a package. If no onerror function is supplied, `ImportError`s are caught and ignored, while all other exceptions are propagated, terminating the search.

  Examples:

      # list all modules python can access
      walk_packages()

      # list all submodules of ctypes
      walk_packages(ctypes.__path__, ctypes.__name__ + '.')

  Note

  Only works for a finder which defines an `iter_modules()` method. This interface is non-standard, so the module also provides implementations for `importlib.machinery.FileFinder` and `zipimport.zipimporter`.

  Changed in version 3.3: Updated to be based directly on `importlib` rather than relying on the package internal PEP 302 import emulation.

`pkgutil.``get_data`(package, resource)

  Get a resource from a package.

  This is a wrapper for the loader `get_data` API. The package argument should be the name of a package, in standard module format (`foo.bar`). The resource argument should be in the form of a relative filename, using `/` as the path separator. The parent directory name `..` is not allowed, and nor is a rooted name (starting with a `/`).

  The function returns a binary string that is the contents of the specified resource.

  For packages located in the filesystem, which have already been imported, this is the rough equivalent of:

      d = os.path.dirname(sys.modules[package].__file__)
      data = open(os.path.join(d, resource), 'rb').read()

  If the package cannot be located or loaded, or it uses a loader which does not support `get_data`, then `None` is returned. In particular, the loader for namespace packages does not support `get_data`.

`pkgutil.``resolve_name`(name)

  Resolve a name to an object.

  This functionality is used in numerous places in the standard library (see bpo-12915) - and equivalent functionality is also in widely used third-party packages such as setuptools, Django and Pyramid.

  It is expected that name will be a string in one of the following formats, where W is shorthand for a valid Python identifier and dot stands for a literal period in these pseudo-regexes:

  - `W(.W)*`

  - `W(.W)*:(W(.W)*)?`

  The first form is intended for backward compatibility only. It assumes that some part of the dotted name is a package, and the rest is an object somewhere within that package, possibly nested inside other objects. Because the place where the package stops and the object hierarchy starts can’t be inferred by inspection, repeated attempts to import must be done with this form.

  In the second form, the caller makes the division point clear through the provision of a single colon: the dotted name to the left of the colon is a package to be imported, and the dotted name to the right is the object hierarchy within that package. Only one import is needed in this form. If it ends with the colon, then a module object is returned.

  The function will return an object (which might be a module), or raise one of the following exceptions:

  `ValueError` – if name isn’t in a recognised format.

  `ImportError` – if an import failed when it shouldn’t have.

  `AttributeError` – If a failure occurred when traversing the object hierarchy within the imported package to get to the desired object.

  New in version 3.9.