Python module name conflict

Question

I have come across two Python modules that have to be imported using the same module name, e.g.

import foo

I know that the one I want provides certain functions (e.g. foo.bar()), so is there a way to cycle through the modules with the same name until I find the one that provides those functions? Or is there no way around other than renaming the module before installing?

Edit: just to clarify what I mean, both modules are inside site-packages:

site-packages$ ls python_montage-0.9.3-py2.6.egg
EGG-INFO montage
site-packages$ ls montage-0.3.2-py2.6.egg/
EGG-INFO montage

Answer 1

Since python 2.5 (and PEP 328) absolute import is the prefered way of managing modules in python. In your case, your module tree is certainly like this :

/src/first_level/foo
                /other_foo
    /second_level/foo # with the bar method

If you want to use the foo module with the bar method, use this :

import second_level.foo

Answer 2

Here is a way :

import imp
import sys


def find_module(name, predicate=None):
    """Find a module with the name if this module have the predicate true.

    Arguments:
       - name: module name as a string.
       - predicate: a function that accept one argument as the name of a module and return
             True or False.
    Return:
       - The module imported
    Raise:
       - ImportError if the module wasn't found.

    """

    search_paths = sys.path[:]

    if not predicate:
        return __import__(name)

    while 1:
        fp, pathname, desc = imp.find_module(name, search_paths)
        module = imp.load_module(name, fp, pathname, desc)

        if predicate(module):
            return module
        else: 
            search_paths = search_paths[1:]

I bet there is some corners that i didn't take in consideration but hopefully this can give you some idea.

N.B: I think the best idea will be to just rename your module if possible.

N.B 2: As i see in your edited answer, sadly this solution will not work because the two modules exist in the same directory (site-packages/).

Answer 3

If you're happy that you can figure out the filenames through some other heuristic, then you should be able to use imp.load_module to load them separately.

See http://docs.python.org/library/imp.html#imp.load_module

In your case, although both eggs are on the python path, I believe eggs do some magic whereby each egg acts as a path. You might be able to set the egg file as the path argument to imp.find_module in order to load them separately.

Answer 4

There are ways to hack around the two modules with the same name limitation, but unless you are doing this simply for educational purposes, I wouldn't recommend it. The end result will be confusing and unmaintainable. I highly recommend renaming one or both of the modules instead of messing around with obscure Python import related features.