runtime-syspath 0.1.15

Functions show and find each 'src' directory under working directory and add each to sys.path.

runtime-syspath is a package to ease programmatically adding paths to sys.path. This is targeted at python test code that needs to discover a project's solution source to test.

:exclamation: It is generally frowned upon to alter the sys.path programmatically as it confuses development, especially refactoring. Python IDEs can statically determine if a missing import needs to be loaded from PyPi. That static missing import detection registers false-negatives if the import is discovered via dynamic (programmatic) alterations of sys.path at runtime.

The following description assumes the use of pytest unit testing support and a project file structuring that includes project root directories named src (project solution) and tests (project tests of project source under src. The src directory is-a package (contains __init__py) whereas tests, for simple 1-package project testing, tend to be flat and pytest's default test discovery negates the need for tests being a package (doesn't contain __init__.py):

├─ src
│  └─ __init__.py
|  └─ foo.py
├─ tests
│  └─ test_foo.py
└─ setup.py

That structure is based upon this guidance. See considerations for alternate directory structures below.

When testing solution source in a project, the test cases can statically access the solution source by importing with the src package prefix:

import src.packagename.foo

Not only does that not feel right at all, that solution implies that tests are run only from the project root, not within the tests directory itself. If the test is run within the tests directory, the src package won't be found at runtime.

So, using:

import packagename.foo

... the src directory would need to be programmatically added to the sys.path. This will allow for tests to be run wherever the test module is under the tests sub-tree. runtime_syspath will discover all src directories under <project root>/src. The reason that there may be more is if your project is using git subprojects under <project root>/src that have their own src directories. Those need to be added to sys.path also.

To leverage runtime-syspath to add the src directory everytime a test is run, import and run add_srcdirs_to_syspath in tests/conftest.py. (If tests contain more conftest.py under its directory tree, the call still only need appear in the root test/conftest.py!):

from runtime_syspath import add_srcdirs_to_syspath

add_srcdirs_to_syspath() 

add_srcdirs_to_syspath() will recursively discover all src subdirectories under the . For projects that use git submodules, their src directories need to be added to src.path for import access. git subprojects could be added to src or tests directory trees:

├─ src
│  └─ __init__.py
|  └─ projectpackage
│     └─ __init__.py
|     └─ foo.py
|  └─ subproject
|     └─ src
│       └─ __init__.py
|       └─ bar.py
|     └─ tests
├─ tests
│  └─ test_foo.py
|  └─ test_subproject
|     └─ src
│       └─ __init__.py
|       └─ unfoobarrator.py
|     └─ tests
└─ setup.py

:exclamation: Due to the code maintenance and grok'ing mayhem caused by indiscriminate runtime additions to sys.path, your goal should be to limit that anti-pattern to this discovery-of-source aspect for
import discovery.

:bulb: Since programmatically adding to a sys.path impairs an IDE's ability to do static import discovery and leveraging IDE refactoring features between the solution source and the test code, an IDE user would need to manually mark all src directories as such.
PyCharm example: