Importing Modules

The modules described in this chapter provide new ways to import other Python modules and hooks for customizing the import process.

The full list of modules described in this chapter is:

• zipimport --- Import modules from Zip archives
  • zipimporter Objects
  • Examples
• pkgutil --- Package extension utility
• modulefinder --- Find modules used by a script
  • Example usage of ModuleFinder
• runpy --- Locating and executing Python modules
• importlib --- The implementation of import
  • Introduction
  • Functions
  • importlib.abc -- Abstract base classes related to import
  • importlib.machinery -- Importers and path hooks
  • importlib.util -- Utility code for importers
  • Examples
    • Importing programmatically
    • Checking if a module can be imported
    • Importing a source file directly
    • Implementing lazy imports
    • Setting up an importer
    • Approximating importlib.import_module()
• importlib.resources -- Package resource reading, opening and access
  • Functional API
• importlib.resources.abc -- Abstract base classes for resources
• importlib.metadata -- Accessing package metadata
  • Overview
  • Functional API
    • Entry points
    • Distribution metadata
    • Distribution versions
    • Distribution files
    • Distribution requirements
    • Mapping import to distribution packages
  • Distributions
  • Distribution Discovery
  • Implementing Custom Providers
    • Example
• The initialization of the sys.path module search path
  • Virtual Environments
  • _pth files
  • Embedded Python