Pylint: Folder analysis fails if '__init__.py' is not present

[Stevoisiak]

When analyzing a folder, Pylint will fail with "No such file or directory" (parse-error) if the folder does not contain an __init__.py file.

Ironically, this means Pylint will fail if you try to analyze the Pylint repository.

C:\Windows\System32>pylint C:\Temp\pylint-master
No config file found, using default configuration
*************
F:  1, 0: error while code parsing: Unable to load file C:\Temp\pylint-master\__init__.py:
[Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'C:\\Temp\\pylint-master\\__init__.py' (parse-error)

Steps to reproduce

1. Create a project with the following folder structure

   project
   hello.py
   goodbye.py

2. Analyze the folder with Pylint

   pylint C:\Temp\project

Current behavior

Folder analysis will fail.

C:\Windows\System32>pylint C:\Temp\project
No config file found, using default configuration
*************
F:  1, 0: error while code parsing: Unable to load file C:\Temp\project\__init__.py:
[Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'C:\\Temp\\project\\__init__.py' (parse-error)

Expected behavior

Pylint should analyze all files in the folder without raising an error.

pylint --version output

No config file found, using default configuration
pylint 1.9.0,
astroid 1.6.3
Python 3.6.4 (v3.6.4:d48eceb, Dec 19 2017, 06:04:45) [MSC v.1900 32 bit (Intel)]

Extra information

This issue is likely related to #842. It appears this issue was fixed when analyzing individual files, but is still present when analyzing folders.

__init__.py was made optional in Python 3.3.

[PCManticore]

Duplicate of #352 We currently don't support analyzing directories with no __init__ files in them, as we consider all the directories passed to CLI as packages. This will change in the future once #352 is fixed

[sztomi]

@PCManticore Isn't that different though? In Python3.3+ directories don't need __init__.py to be considered packages. Can't pylint do the same (i.e. not fail when there is no __init__.py but consider the directory a package)?

[Stevoisiak]

@sztomi The specific example I used for this issue was a root project folder, not a package folder.

I have not tested what will happen if pylint analyzes a package directory without an __init__.py file.

[ClaytonSmith]

So what's the status of this issue? I can't run pylint at my project's root and I don't understand why that's not supported.

[MattLupino]

I'm also interested in a workaround for this using the pylint module. Is there a way to stop getting this error when using epylint.py_run() on a PyCharm project? Would the workaround possibly use --ignore=__init__.py or something like that?

[lyellread]

I also have this issue, with very similar initial parameters. Is there any plan to fix this?