How do I fix "ImportError: No module named index" when importing RTree in Python?

Question

I tried installing Rtree 0.7.0 from PyPI, but I keep getting ImportError: No module named index when I try to use it. I downloaded and ran the Rtree-0.7.0.win32.exe from the Downloads page, and everything appears to be installed properly.

Here's the full error message that I get (from the Python 3.2.2 shell):

>>> from rtree import index
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#0>", line 1, in <module>
    from rtree import index
  File "C:\Python32\lib\site-packages\rtree\__init__.py", line 1, in <module>
    from index import Rtree
ImportError: No module named index

>>> import rtree
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#1>", line 1, in <module>
    import rtree
  File "C:\Python32\lib\site-packages\rtree\__init__.py", line 1, in <module>
    from index import Rtree
ImportError: No module named index

The error message indicates that there's no module named 'index', but when I look in my C:\Python32\lib\site-packages\rtree\ directory, I see that it's there.

What could be causing me to still get the ImportError: No module named index error message, and how can I fix it so I can use the RTree module?

Answer 1

It appears to rely on import foo doing a relative import. It was the default behavior in 2.x (from 2.5 onwards there's a __future__ directive overriding that). Python 3 removed this. So the maintainers probably didn't even try to be 3.x-compatible, and the installation just worked by chance. Appropriately, there is no claim of Python 3 compatibility: No Programming Language :: Python :: 3 trove classifier, no mention in the documentation, no use of 2to3 in setup.py, etc. Short of patching rtree to fix this, and probably numerous other issues, you won't get it to work.