Problem accessing config files within a Python egg

Question

I have a Python project that has the following structure:

package1
  class.py
  class2.py
  ...
package2
  otherClass.py
  otherClass2.py
  ...
config
  dev_sett         


        

Answer 1

The problem is, the config files are not files anymore - they're packaged within the egg. It's not easy to find the answer in the docs, but it is there. From the setuptools developer's guide:

Typically, existing programs manipulate a package's __file__ attribute in order to find the location of data files. However, this manipulation isn't compatible with PEP 302-based import hooks, including importing from zip files and Python Eggs.

To access them, you need to follow the instructions for the Resource Management API.

In my own code, I had this problem with a logging configuration file. I used the API successfully like this:

from pkg_resources import resource_stream

_log_config_file = 'logging.conf'
_log_config_location = resource_stream(__name__, _log_config_file)
logging.config.fileConfig(_log_config_location)
_log = logging.getLogger('package.module')

Answer 2

See Setuptools' discussion of accessing pacakged data files at runtime. You have to get at your configuration file a different way if you want the script to work inside an egg. Also, for that to work, you may need to make your config directory a Python package by tossing in an empty __init__.py file.