Importing Python modules from different working directory

Question

I have a Python script that uses built-in modules but also imports a number of custom modules that exist in the same directory as the main script itself. For example, I would call ``` python agent.py ``` and agent.py has a number of imports, including: ``` import checks ``` where checks is in a file in the same directory as agent.py ``` agent/agent.py agent/checks.py ``` When the current working directory is agent/ then everything is fine. However, if I call agent.py from any other directory, it is obviously unable to import checks.py and so errors. How can I ensure that the custom modules can be imported regardless of where the agent.py is called from e.g. ``` python /home/bob/scripts/agent/agent.py ```

Accepted Answer

Actually your example works because checks.py is in the same directory as agent.py, but say checks.py was in the preceeding directory, eg;

```
agent/agent.py
checks.py
```

Then you could do the following:

```
path = os.path.abspath(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), '..'))
if not path in sys.path:
    sys.path.insert(1, path)
del path
```

Note the use of `__file__`.

Importing Python modules from different working directory

Solution

Problem