Question

How do I load a Python module given its full path?

Note that the file can be anywhere in the filesystem where the user has access rights.

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_{See also: How to import a module given its name as string?}

Answer 1

Let’s have MyClass in module.name module defined at /path/to/file.py. Below is how we import MyClass from this module

For Python 3.5+ use (docs):

import importlib.util import sys spec = importlib.util.spec_from_file_location("module.name", "/path/to/file.py") foo = importlib.util.module_from_spec(spec) sys.modules["module.name"] = foo spec.loader.exec_module(foo) foo.MyClass() 

For Python 3.3 and 3.4 use:

from importlib.machinery import SourceFileLoader  foo = SourceFileLoader("module.name", "/path/to/file.py").load_module() foo.MyClass() 

(Although this has been deprecated in Python 3.4.)

For Python 2 use:

import imp  foo = imp.load_source('module.name', '/path/to/file.py') foo.MyClass() 

There are equivalent convenience functions for compiled Python files and DLLs.

See also http://bugs.python.org/issue21436.