Python error: ImportError: cannot import name Akismet

Question

I've seen many similar errors, but I can't see a solution that applies to my particular problem.

I'm trying to use the Akismet module which is on my PYTHONPATH, then if I start up the interactive interpreter, when I run "from akismet import Akismet" (as the docstring says), I get the following error:

from akismet import Akismet
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: cannot import name Akismet

Answer 1

It will work perfectly if your PYTHONPATH is set correctly and globally (just tested it myself).

• Must be set to the directory containing "akismet.py", not the file path! Make sure you don't use relative paths.
• Note that you might need to reboot/logoff in order to apply environment variable changes to all programs.

Answer 2

You should have the directory containing the 'akismet' directory in your path. I guess, you have added the 'akismet' directory itself to $PYTHONPATH.

When you write:

from akismet import Akismet

Python tries to open file 'akismet/Akismet.py' somewhere in its search path.

All this assuming 'Akismet' is a file and 'akismet' is a directory. If there is an 'akismet.py' file, then the directory containing this file should be listed in $PYTHONPATH.

Answer 3

Check if your PYTHONPATH is really what you expect it to be, e.g. by doing this in an interactive console:

In [1]: import sys

In [2]: print sys.path

is akismet.py really in one of those folders?