What is the best project structure for a Python application?
directory-structure, organization, project-structure, python
Solution
Doesn't too much matter. Whatever makes you happy will work. There aren't a lot of silly rules because Python projects can be simple.
- `/scripts` or `/bin` for that kind of command-line interface stuff
- `/tests` for your tests
- `/lib` for your C-language libraries
- `/doc` for most documentation
- `/apidoc` for the Epydoc-generated API docs.
And the top-level directory can contain README's, Config's and whatnot.
The hard choice is whether or not to use a `/src` tree. Python doesn't have a distinction between `/src`, `/lib`, and `/bin` like Java or C has.
Since a top-level `/src` directory is seen by some as meaningless, your top-level directory can be the top-level architecture of your application.
- `/foo`
- `/bar`
- `/baz`
I recommend putting all of this under the "name-of-my-product" directory. So, if you're writing an application named `quux`, the directory that contains all this stuff is named `/quux`.
Another project's `PYTHONPATH`, then, can include `/path/to/quux/foo` to reuse the `QUUX.foo` module.
In my case, since I use Komodo Edit, my IDE cuft is a single .KPF file. I actually put that in the top-level `/quux` directory, and omit adding it to SVN.
Problem
Imagine that you want to develop a non-trivial end-user desktop (not web) application in Python. What is the best way to structure the project's folder hierarchy? Desirable features are ease of maintenance, IDE-friendliness, suitability for source control branching/merging, and easy generation of install packages. In particular: - Where do you put the source? - Where do you put application startup scripts? - Where do you put the IDE project cruft? - Where do you put the unit/acceptance tests? - Where do you put non-Python data such as config files? - Where do you put non-Python sources such as C++ for pyd/so binary extension modules?