Unable to import pycocotools from script

[mprat]

I am playing with the pycocotools package and found that I was not able to import pycocotools from a python script, but COULD import it from ipython. For example:

python -c "import pycocotools"

yields

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named pycocotools

But, doing

ipython
In [1]: import pycocotools

Works fine.

Has anyone seen this problem before? I'm working in a virtual environment.

[mprat]

Uh, nevermind. This was a problem with where the library was installed and which version of Python was being used by iPython.

[PrateekRaisinghani]

So, where should we install the library and which version of Python worked for you?

[mprat]

I specifically used Python 2.7 installed on my mac using homebrew. The problem was happening because I had installed the package into a virtualenv, but was not using the virtualenv for launching iPython, where I was trying to do the import.

[hphong591992]

Can you clarify a little bit more how you fix this error?

Thank you.

Nevermind, I fixed it as going to /PythonAPI/ and call python setup.py install again.

[mprat]

The solution differs greatly based on your operating system, use/not-use of virtual environments, how you launched Python, etc. If you elaborate on how you use Python on your system then the solution will become clearer.

The basic idea is that you have to install the package in the same version / instance of Python that you are trying to import the package from.

[monajalal]

I have the followings for solving the problem:

import sys
sys.path.append('/home/mona/mscoco/coco/PythonAPI')
p(sys.path)
from pycocotools.coco import COCO

And I also have:

git clone https://github.com/pdollar/coco.git
and then you should do a make in the PythonAPI repo.

[Thrianadh]

Thanks monajalal
I re-solved the problem
thanks for Posting

[Jinnaouc]

@monajalal
Thanks monajalal
I also solved my problem with your solution, but a delete the p(sys.path). But I don't know too much about python, when I use your method, there is an error: p is not defined. So I delete that line, it still works well.

[salihkaragoz]

This also another solution for virtual environments.
git clone https://github.com/cocodataset/cocoapi.git
open venv
source venv/bin/activate
cd cocoapi/PythonAPI
python setup.py install
Don't use --user because if you use this parameter pycocotools packet will installed to your local dist-packages not in venv.

[cclauss]

@salihkaragoz That workaround does not work anymore.

[vyviansomaya]

It still fails for me. these are the following steps I took

$ git clone https://github.com/pdollar/coco.git
$ cd coco/PythonAPI
$ make
$python setup.py install

I open a new notebook in AWS SageMaker in the PythonAPI directory and tried to import pycocotools, it succeeded.
Next, I tried "from pycocotools.coco import COCO" and got the "No module named _mask" output. I have done everything in the comments above and I still fail. The only difference I notice is that I'm using SageMaker . should that be the issue? or if its something else please let me know!

[khan958]

Same Problem with me. How can i solve it .
File "C:\Users\Jayden\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\pycocotools\mask.py", line 3, in
import pycocotools._mask as _mask

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pycocotools._mask