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Newsgroups: comp.lang.python
Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2013 08:37:00 -0700 (PDT)
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Subject: Re: import in Python3.3
From: rocky <rocky@gnu.org>
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On Tuesday, March 26, 2013 3:04:44 AM UTC-4, Terry Reedy wrote:
> On 3/24/2013 7:12 PM, Fabian von Romberg wrote:
>=20
> > Hi,
>=20
> >
>=20
> > I have a package name collections and inside of my package I want to
>=20
> > import the collections package from the standard library, but there
>=20
> > is name conflicts.
>=20
>=20
>=20
> Yes. I strongly advise against trying to do this.
>=20
>=20
>=20
> > How do I import explicitly from the standard library?
>=20
>=20
>=20
> Manipulate sys.path.=20

This is a common suggestion for working *around* the issue, but it has prob=
lems of its own.

In my opinion using sys.path is clunky - you may want to save an restore th=
e value around use especially if the the place you are using it is not at t=
he top level but in some inner less-exposed sub module. And make sure to re=
store sys.path in the presence of exceptions getting thrown somewhere insid=
e the import.=20

It is also a bit of a security nightmare. If something evil gets injected i=
n there what does it effect and how would you know it? sys.path provides a =
series of directories where and evil masquerading Python program can linger=
.

And again, I get the impression that for the use case asked about, there is=
n't much ambiguity. If I am in mypackage.foo and I want to access mypackage=
.collections I should be able to say something like that without ambiguity =
or that much inference or directory searching. If mypackage.colletions is n=
ot found inside the same directory as mypackage.foo, often I DON'T WANT Pyt=
hon to helpfully go searching around other places for it which sys.path wil=
l do. Instead what I probably want is Python to give me an error.=20

So again I come to import_relative, http://code.google.com/p/pyimport-relat=
ive/.  And again, I wish this package didn't have to exist.

> If you don't know how, either read about sys.path=20
>=20
> (see index) or don't do it.
>=20
>=20
>=20
> --=20
>=20
> Terry Jan Reedy