# Cannot import module from ~/.ansible/plugins/module\_utils **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Developer\ **Created:** [June 6, 2019, 6:18pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/cannot-import-module-from-ansible-plugins-module-utils/30506 "2019-06-06T18:18:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Modest\_Sokolov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9dc877/32.png) [@Modest\_Sokolov](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Modest_Sokolov)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2019, 6:18pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/cannot-import-module-from-ansible-plugins-module-utils/30506/1 "2019-06-06T18:18:30Z")
Hello, I develop the modules for comware5. They run, when are in ansible standard directoriу, for my installation it is /usr/local/Cellar/ansible/2.8.0/libexec/lib/python3.7/site-packages/ansible/ I’ve tried to move them in other directories - in ~/.ansible at running time of ansible-playbook now I’ve got error: File “/usr/local/Cellar/ansible/2.8.0/libexec/lib/python3.7/imp.py”, line 171, in load\_source module = \_load(spec) File “”, line 696, in \_load File “”, line 677, in \_load\_unlocked File “”, line 728, in exec\_module File “”, line 219, in \_call\_with\_frames\_removed File “/Users/modest/.ansible/plugins/action/comware5\_config.py”, line 18, in from ansible.module\_utils.network.comware5.comware5 import comware5\_provider\_spec **ModuleNotFoundError: No module named ‘ansible.module\_utils.network.comware5’** In ansible module I’ve got the string: from ansible.module\_utils.network.comware5.comware5 import comware5\_provider\_spec The ansible.conf file is empty. bob@Mac:~/.ansible$ ansible-config dump| grep MODULE\_UTILS\_PATH DEFAULT\_MODULE\_UTILS\_PATH(default) = [‘/Users/bob/.ansible/plugins/module\_utils’, ‘/usr/share/ansible/plugins/module\_utils’] bob@Mac:~/.ansible$ uname -a Darwin Mac.local 18.6.0 Darwin Kernel Version 18.6.0: Thu Apr 25 23:16:27 PDT 2019; root:xnu-4903.261.4~2/RELEASE\_X86\_64 x86\_64 bob@Mac:~/.ansible$ tree . ├── cp ├── modules │ └── network │ └── comware5 │ ├── **init**.py │ ├── comware5\_command.py │ └── comware5\_config.py ├── pc ├── **plugins** │ ├── action │ │ ├── comware5.py │ │ ├── comware5\_config.py │ │ └── comware5\_template.py │ ├── cliconf │ │ └── comware5.py │ ├── doc\_fragments │ │ └── comware5.py │ ├── **module\_utils** │ │ ├── **init**.py │ │ ├── comware5.py │ │ └── network │ │ ├── **init**.py │ │ └── **comware5** │ │ ├── **init**.py │ │ └── comware5.py │ ├── netconf │ │ └── comware5.py │ └── terminal │ └── comware5.py └── tmp 15 directories, 15 files bob@Mac:~/.ansible$ Could you please give me advice, why ansible can not import module from DEFAULT\_MODULE\_UTILS\_PATH? Where can be my mistake? Regards, Modest ---
**Author:** ![Modest\_Sokolov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9dc877/32.png) [@Modest\_Sokolov](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Modest_Sokolov)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2019, 2:05pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/cannot-import-module-from-ansible-plugins-module-utils/30506/2 "2019-06-07T14:05:54Z")
bob@Mac:~/.ansible$ ansible --version ansible 2.8.0 config file = /Users/bob/Work/Ansible/lab/ansible.cfg configured module search path = [‘/Users/bob/.ansible/plugins/modules’, ‘/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules’] ansible python module location = /usr/local/Cellar/ansible/2.8.0/libexec/lib/python3.7/site-packages/ansible executable location = /usr/local/bin/ansible python version = 3.7.3 (default, Mar 27 2019, 09:23:15) [Clang 10.0.1 (clang-1001.0.46.3)] In the pdb I’ve got: (Pdb) sys.meta\_path [\, \, \, \, \, \, \] (Pdb) p sys.path [‘/usr/local/Cellar/ansible/2.8.0/libexec/bin’, ‘/usr/local/Cellar/ansible/2.8.0/libexec/lib/python37.zip’, ‘/usr/local/Cellar/ansible/2.8.0/libexec/lib/python3.7’, ‘/usr/local/Cellar/ansible/2.8.0/libexec/lib/python3.7/lib-dynload’, ‘/usr/local/opt/python/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7’, ‘/usr/local/Cellar/ansible/2.8.0/libexec/lib/python3.7/site-packages’] Regards, Modest ---
**Author:** ![Modest\_Sokolov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9dc877/32.png) [@Modest\_Sokolov](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Modest_Sokolov)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2019, 3:56pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/cannot-import-module-from-ansible-plugins-module-utils/30506/3 "2019-06-07T15:56:24Z")
If in the code I change **from ansible.module\_utils.network.comware5.comware5 import comware5\_provider\_spec** to **from ansible.module\_utils.network import comware5\_provider\_spec** The ansible-playbook ends with: File “/Users/bob/.ansible/plugins/action/comware5\_config.py”, line 18, in from ansible.module\_utils.network import comware5\_provider\_spec **ImportError** : cannot import name ‘comware5\_provider\_spec’ from ‘ansible.module\_utils.network’ ( **/usr/local/Cellar/ansible/2.8.0/libexec/lib/python3.7/site-packages/ansible/module\_utils/network/init.py** ) Does this mean, that ansible doesn’t use $DEFAULT\_MODULE\_UTILS\_PATH? that is DEFAULT\_MODULE\_UTILS\_PATH(default) = [‘/Users/bob/.ansible/plugins/module\_utils’, ‘/usr/share/ansible/plugins/module\_utils’] ---
**Author:** ![Modest\_Sokolov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9dc877/32.png) [@Modest\_Sokolov](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Modest_Sokolov)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2019, 8:41pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/cannot-import-module-from-ansible-plugins-module-utils/30506/4 "2019-06-27T20:41:01Z")
Hello. I was able to solve problem. It seems, **the rule** from documentation "The `ansible.module_utils` namespace is not a plain Python package: it is constructed dynamically for each task invocation, by extracting imports and resolving those matching the namespace against a [search path](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/dev_guide/overview_architecture.html#ansible-search-path) derived from the active configuration. " **is not working for action plugins.** It will be very useful, if information about this point was in ansible documentation too. Regards, Modest Sokolov ---
**Author:** ![jborean](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/jborean/32/1525_2.png) [@jborean](https://forum.ansible.com/u/jborean)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2019, 10:20pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/cannot-import-module-from-ansible-plugins-module-utils/30506/5 "2019-06-27T22:20:49Z")
Action plugins can reference ansible.module\_utils but only for ones in the base Ansible package. Module can take advantage of the lookup path as it is built for you automatically and sent across to the remote host. Feel free to raise a PR to the Ansible docs at [https://github.com/ansible/ansible/tree/devel/docs/docsite/rst](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/tree/devel/docs/docsite/rst) if you want to clarify it further [https://github.com/ansible/ansible/tree/devel/docs/docsite/rst](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/tree/devel/docs/docsite/rst). Thanks Jordan ---
**Author:** ![Modest\_Sokolov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9dc877/32.png) [@Modest\_Sokolov](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Modest_Sokolov)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2019, 8:14am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/cannot-import-module-from-ansible-plugins-module-utils/30506/6 "2019-06-28T08:14:58Z")
Jordan, thanks a lot. [https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/58490](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/58490) пт, 28 июн. 2019 г. в 01:20, Jordan Borean \<[jborean93@gmail.com](mailto:jborean93@gmail.com)\>: