
``pkgutil`` --- Package extension utility
*****************************************

New in version 2.3.

This module provides functions to manipulate packages:

pkgutil.extend_path(path, name)

   Extend the search path for the modules which comprise a package.
   Intended use is to place the following code in a package's
   ``__init__.py``:

      from pkgutil import extend_path
      __path__ = extend_path(__path__, __name__)

   This will add to the package's ``__path__`` all subdirectories of
   directories on ``sys.path`` named after the package.  This is
   useful if one wants to distribute different parts of a single
   logical package as multiple directories.

   It also looks for ``*.pkg`` files beginning where ``*`` matches the
   *name* argument.  This feature is similar to ``*.pth`` files (see
   the ``site`` module for more information), except that it doesn't
   special-case lines starting with ``import``.  A ``*.pkg`` file is
   trusted at face value: apart from checking for duplicates, all
   entries found in a ``*.pkg`` file are added to the path, regardless
   of whether they exist on the filesystem.  (This is a feature.)

   If the input path is not a list (as is the case for frozen
   packages) it is returned unchanged.  The input path is not
   modified; an extended copy is returned.  Items are only appended to
   the copy at the end.

   It is assumed that ``sys.path`` is a sequence.  Items of
   ``sys.path`` that are not (Unicode or 8-bit) strings referring to
   existing directories are ignored. Unicode items on ``sys.path``
   that cause errors when used as filenames may cause this function to
   raise an exception (in line with ``os.path.isdir()`` behavior).

pkgutil.get_data(package, resource)

   Get a resource from a package.

   This is a wrapper for the PEP 302 loader ``get_data()`` API. The
   package argument should be the name of a package, in standard
   module format (foo.bar). The resource argument should be in the
   form of a relative filename, using ``/`` as the path separator. The
   parent directory name ``..`` is not allowed, and nor is a rooted
   name (starting with a ``/``).

   The function returns a binary string that is the contents of the
   specified resource.

   For packages located in the filesystem, which have already been
   imported, this is the rough equivalent of:

      d = os.path.dirname(sys.modules[package].__file__)
      data = open(os.path.join(d, resource), 'rb').read()

   If the package cannot be located or loaded, or it uses a PEP 302
   loader which does not support ``get_data()``, then None is
   returned.
