title: Getting Modules Into Python Search Path
body: <p>In the past, in order for me to use/import my own custom packages in python all i've had to do is edit my .bash_profile so that they are appended to my $PATH environmental variable.</p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt;&gt; echo $PATH
  /Users/MYNAME/google-cloud-sdk/bin:/Users/MYNAME/anaconda/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/Users/MYNAME/Documents/Python_Programs/MYPACKAGE1:/Users/MYNAME/Documents/GitRepos/MYPACKAGE2
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>as you can see my path variable contains MYPACKAGE1 and MYPACKAGE2.
  The former is literally just a folder with a single .py file in it. The latter follows the conventional package folder structure.</p>
  
  <p>One thing to note is my PYTHONPATH is apparently empty</p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt;&gt; echo $PYTHONPATH
  
  &gt;&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>but if, in python, I look at <code>sys.path</code>:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt;&gt; import sys
  &gt;&gt; sys.path
  ['',
   '/Users/MYNAME/anaconda/bin',
   '/Users/MYNAME/anaconda/lib/python36.zip',
   '/Users/MYNAME/anaconda/lib/python3.6',
   '/Users/MYNAME/anaconda/lib/python3.6/lib-dynload',
   '/Users/MYNAME/anaconda/lib/python3.6/site-packages',
   '/Users/MYNAME/Documents/Python_Programs/MYPACKAGE1',
   '/Users/MYNAME/Documents/GitRepos/MYPACKAGE2',
   '/Users/MYNAME/anaconda/lib/python3.6/site-packages/Sphinx-1.5.6-py3.6.egg',
   '/Users/MYNAME/anaconda/lib/python3.6/site-packages/aeosa',
   '/Users/MYNAME/anaconda/lib/python3.6/site-packages/IPython/extensions',
   '/Users/MYNAME/.ipython']
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Great, no problem importing from either package.</p>
  
  <p>So I made a third package which has the same structure as MYPACKAGE2</p>
  
  <pre><code>MYPACKAGE3/
      bin/
      README.md
      CHANGES.txt
      setup.py
      MANIFEST.IN
      my_module/
          __init__.py
          sub_module1.py
          sub_module2.py
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>added it to my path</p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt;&gt; echo $PATH
  /Users/MYNAME/google-cloud-sdk/bin:/Users/MYNAME/anaconda/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/Users/MYNAME/Documents/Python_Programs/MYPACKAGE1:/Users/MYNAME/Documents/GitRepos/MYPACKAGE2:/Users/MYNAME/Documents/GitRepos/MYPACKAGE3
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>but for some reason i can't import it in python and it's not in my sys.path (sys.path is exactly the same as before).</p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt;&gt; import my_module
  ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'my_module'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I have no idea what's changed. What am I missing?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks in advance. </p>