importlib.resources – Package resource reading, opening and access

Source code: Lib/importlib/resources/__init__.py

New in version 3.7.

This module leverages Python’s import system to provide access to resources within packages.

“Resources” are file-like resources associated with a module or package in Python. The resources may be contained directly in a package, within a subdirectory contained in that package, or adjacent to modules outside a package. Resources may be text or binary. As a result, Python module sources (.py) of a package and compilation artifacts (pycache) are technically de-facto resources of that package. In practice, however, resources are primarily those non-Python artifacts exposed specifically by the package author.

Resources can be opened or read in either binary or text mode.

Resources are roughly akin to files inside directories, though it’s important to keep in mind that this is just a metaphor. Resources and packages do not have to exist as physical files and directories on the file system: for example, a package and its resources can be imported from a zip file using zipimport.

Note

This module provides functionality similar to pkg_resources Basic Resource Access without the performance overhead of that package. This makes reading resources included in packages easier, with more stable and consistent semantics.

The standalone backport of this module provides more information on using importlib.resources and migrating from pkg_resources to importlib.resources.

Loaders that wish to support resource reading should implement a get_resource_reader(fullname) method as specified by importlib.resources.abc.ResourceReader.

class importlib.resources.Anchor

Represents an anchor for resources, either a module object or a module name as a string. Defined as Union[str, ModuleType].

importlib.resources.files(anchor: Anchor | None = None)

Returns a Traversable object representing the resource container (think directory) and its resources (think files). A Traversable may contain other containers (think subdirectories).

anchor is an optional Anchor. If the anchor is a package, resources are resolved from that package. If a module, resources are resolved adjacent to that module (in the same package or the package root). If the anchor is omitted, the caller’s module is used.

New in version 3.9.

Changed in version 3.12: package parameter was renamed to anchor. anchor can now be a non-package module and if omitted will default to the caller’s module. package is still accepted for compatibility but will raise a DeprecationWarning. Consider passing the anchor positionally or using importlib_resources >= 5.10 for a compatible interface on older Pythons.

importlib.resources.as_file(traversable)

Given a Traversable object representing a file or directory, typically from importlib.resources.files(), return a context manager for use in a with statement. The context manager provides a pathlib.Path object.

Exiting the context manager cleans up any temporary file or directory created when the resource was extracted from e.g. a zip file.

Use as_file when the Traversable methods (read_text, etc) are insufficient and an actual file or directory on the file system is required.

New in version 3.9.

Changed in version 3.12: Added support for traversable representing a directory.