Question

I have following directory structure:

• /
  • package/
    • subpackage/
      • __init__.py
      • file.py
    • __init__.py
    • file.py
  • main.py

/package/subpackage/__init__.py has following code:

from .. import file;

It imports /package/file.py as expected.

/main.py has following code:

from package import subpackage as foo;
from package.subpackage import file as bar;

Last line imports /package/file.py, not /package/subpackage/file.py. bar.__name__ confirms it. Why? What’s wrong?

Python 2.5.2. Each file has

from __future__ import absolute_import;

at beginning.

Answer 1

Nothing is wrong, it does exactly what you told it to:

When you import package.subpackage, you’re executing /package/subpackage/__init__.py. And there you do from .. import file. So file in package.subpackage is package.file.