[Question] __init__.py is not required in package root.

[deathaxe]

I have a kind question just for my own interest.

Why do you add an __init__.py to package root? None of the default packages do that and there seems absolutely no drawback when removing it.

It is very fine to use it to "merge" all files in the sub directories to one package, but as far as I know, it doesn't make sense in the package root. It is explicitly loaded by ST just like a normal python file but without any functionality.

The suggestions discussed here don't use it, too, even though all python modules are placed in a src sub directory.

I guess the git_savvy.py is the only needed python file in the root.

[stoivo]

This is the commit message
a55603d

Other: convert directories with code to proper packages
Add __init__ module to all directories with python modules.

This is mainly to make the relative improts make sense for my
anaconda/jedi when running goto/autocomplete commands.

I assume this would help us when we write unit tests as well

[deathaxe]

Yes this is absolutely, correct with all the sub directories. This makes python see all modules in the directories as they were merged in one file on import.

But I was just wondering, whether it is required for package root, too, as all the files there are explicitly loaded by importlib.import_module() (see sublime_plugin.py). ST3 does not import the package root folder as normal python package. It in fact creates a package for each root folder explicitly, even without __init__.py in it.

A print(__package__) statement in a file located in the package root outputs the directory name (GitSavvy or GitGutter in my case). This works without __init__.py, too.

Same with unit testing. I have the UnitTesting package installed. It is used in GitGutter for the promise module. It works with or without __init__.py.

Your reload module and the Automatic Package Reloader plugin recognize packages without init.py, too.

On the opposite, ST3 explicitly loads init.py as it was a normal module implementing some normal functions.

All those facts make me wonder, what's the sense of this file as it obviously does not have any function or meaning in this special case.

So I assume it is not required and won't add such a file to GitGutter. This was the reason for my question.

Thanks.

[asfaltboy]

The __init__.py in root is only required if you need to reference the "root" package from sub-packages.

For example in core/git_command.py we do:

from ..common import util

Without the __init__.py file the import would not be possible (outside of sublime) since the import function cannot "descend" to a directory outside of root package (top-most dir with __init__.py).

To clarify what I meant in the commit, the use cases for this structure are for following imports outside of sublime, i.e without it the below would not be possible:

• Using helper plugins: Anaconda -> Goto Definition
• Running an external test runner: Run unittest directly from OS (for non-sublime related functionality if such exists)

If that answers your question @deathaxe , please go ahead and close the issue.

[deathaxe]

Ok, thanks for your answer. Never took into account, that you use some modules directly in python without ST. So I won't need such a file as ST3 always creates a package from the root directory.