fupi 1.21

A brute-force shortcut to fix python import hell. Acronym, standing for, um, Fix Up Python Imports. Sure, let's go with that.

fupi

A brute-force shortcut to fix python import hell. Acronym standing for... um, Fixing-Up Python Imports. Sure, let's go with that.

Usage

Simply import fupi in your project:

import fupi

This automatically detects and adds relevant directories (src, test, app) and their children to your sys.path, making imports work seamlessly across your project structure regardless of how bad you screw it up. This allow you to run components independently, run tests from anywhere, etc.

This can be a bit dangerous in larger projects with potentially duplicate namespaces, as you'd have no idea what you're actually importing unless you're explicit. You can create a local fupi.env file to limit the scope of what it auto-adds to sys.path, which will help. This is a "move fast and break things" type of project; you have been warned.

Also, you may consider commenting out import fupi once you get deployment and testing automated / located to a centralized starting point, again to make sure you're not hiding import bugs - by that point you won't likely need this brute-force tool. Fupi is really good at speeding up rapid-deploy tests / POCs / etc. by allowing you to import from anywhere in your project, starting from anywhere else in your project - aka coding fast and loose. This is most useful for one-person projects (of which AI is increasing the number and velocity).

Configuration

No configuration is needed if you use the defaults:

• Adds src, test, app folders and subfolders to sys.path...
• Skipping most common non-application file folders, like .git, venv*, __pycache__, setup, etc.

.ENV File Config

To use different / more folder names, simply add the following to an existing .env file, or create a new *.env or fupi.env file:

FUPI_ADD_DIRS="src,test"
FUPI_SKIP_DIRS="setup,venv*,*egg*"

The program will evaluate every *.env file it finds in the current working directory, it's parent, and all it's children. It then picks the best one that contains the two envars above. Those envars have slightly different behaviors:

The FUPI_ADD_DIRS will be string-matched against folders in your project, and on exact match, will include that folder and all subfolders into your sys.path.

The FUPI_SKIP_DIRS is a collection of regex patterns to skip, with string begin and end tags added (^value$). Thus you can simply add a list of folder names, or use basic wildcard * characters. If you want to get crazy with regex, be my guest - but understand the value will be wrapped (^value$).

The FUPI_SKIP_DIRS will also always append patterns to disqualify any path starting with a period('.') or an underscore('_') (i.e., '\.*' and '\_*'), which should catch most common skipped folders like .git, __pycache__, etc.

Environment Variable Config

Alternatively, you can add the above to os.envars BEFORE you import fupi. Similar to the .env approach above, simply add a comma-delimited list of all folder names / regex patterns.

Note, this process does NOT use dotenv, as it would auto-load ALL contents of .env files into os.envars, which could lead to unpredictable behavior. The process is very similar, but restricted to only FUPI_* variables.

Manual Setting

You can also manually call the functions in the fupi libary with whatever settings you'd like. To take advantage of this option, you'll have to escape the default behavior to auto-load to sys.path on import fupi. To escape the auto-run, add a single .env or envvar as per below:

FUPI_ADD_DIRS="disable"

Then you can configure manually, with:

from fupi import fupi
fupi.add_dirs_and_children_to_syspath(
    add_dirs=['my','app','folders'], 
    skip_dirs=['not','*these*'])

Alternatively, you can allow the auto-load, then reset the sys.path using the roll-back ability, below.

Rollback

If you want to roll-back to a previous state, sys.path contents are logged in the object sys_path_history which captures the pre-import snapshot at index[0], and subsequent snapshots every time a change is made. This would allow you to 'roll-back' to a pre-exexution state by simply:

sys.path = fupi.sys_path_history['history'][0]

Linters and AI Coders

The auto-load feature was designed to get down to two words for most use-cases: import fupi - nothing else is needed. One minor disadvantage; linters will often see this as an unused import, and flag it for removal, and/or give you a yellow squiggly underline. Or, an overly-ambitious AI coding tool may drop it without warning. If either bothers you, use the Manual Settings approach, or um, logger.info( fupi.sys_path_history ) for posterity's sake? Couldn't hurt. If it gets to be a real problem, I can add fupi.do_really_important_things() that does nothing. Let AI figure that out.