pypa / pypa/setuptools

PYTHONPATH not properly honored when using pkg_resources

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enhancement help wanted major
Dominant language
Python
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Description

Originally reported by: Anonymous


Here's a sample run: https://gist.github.com/nailor/7f4ddb3a76c325b5bab5

In a nutshell it involves creating two packages named package and a module (in this case called herp) in them both. In addition a package/__init__.py will have the pkg_resources namespace declaration in it.

What I did?

PYTHONPATH=path_to_package1:path_to_package2 python -c 'from package import herp; print herp.__file__'

What I expected?
path_to_package1/package/herp.py would be the file printed because it has precedence in the PYTHONPATH

What happened instead?
path_to_package2/package/herp.py was printed.

In addition this behaviour differs between Python 2.6 with setuptools 0.6c12 and the Python2.7 with setuptools 3.3.

Going through different versions of setuptools looks like this breakage happened in setuptools 2.2 and is present in the latest released version 17.x


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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reproducing the issue with the two packages and the PYTHONPATH command shown in the report, then compare the behavior across the cited setuptools versions. Done means importing package.herp selects the module from path_to_package1, matching PYTHONPATH precedence.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
build-system
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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