Question

I am trying to import a module in python that contains the following lines:

#setup.py
def isnumber(pause):
    try:
        float(pause)
        return True
    except ValueError:
        return False

I am trying to call it like this:

#program.py
import setup

but I get the following error:

    Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\[e-mail]\ralph\programas\python\scraper\release\program.py", line 4, in <module>
    import setup
  File "C:\Users\[e-mail]\ralph\programas\python\lib\setup.py", line 55, in <module>
    download_url="http://www.crummy.com/software/BeautifulSoup/download/"
  File "C:\Users\[e-mail]\ralph\programas\python\lib\distutils\core.py", line 140, in setup
    raise SystemExit, gen_usage(dist.script_name) + "\nerror: %s" % msg
SystemExit: usage: program.py [global_opts] cmd1 [cmd1_opts] [cmd2 [cmd2_opts] ...]
   or: program.py --help [cmd1 cmd2 ...]
   or: program.py --help-commands
   or: program.py cmd --help

error: no commands supplied

Line 55 in setup.py corresponds to return True in the code above.

Without the isnumber function the import works as expected.

Can anyone see what I’m doing wrong?

Answer 1

You’ve decided to call your module “setup.py”. This is a dangerous name to pick since it’s commonly used for the build/install script for Python modules, much like the one yours already has. Pick a different name.