[issue5230] pydoc reports misleading failure if target module raises an ImportError

[Jean-Paul Calderone]

New submission from Jean-Paul Calderone <exarkun at divmod.com>:

If pydoc is used to try to look up the documentation for a module which
does not exist, this is reported reasonably:

    exarkun at charm:~$ pydoc foobarbaz
    no Python documentation found for 'foobarbaz'
    
    exarkun at charm:~$

However, if it is used to look up the documentation for a module which
does exist but which itself imports a module which does not exist, then
the same report is made:

    exarkun at charm:~$ cat > foobarbaz.py
    import barbazquux
    exarkun at charm:~$ pydoc foobarbaz
    no Python documentation found for 'foobarbaz'
    
    exarkun at charm:~$

This is somewhat misleading, since it suggests that there is no such
module "foobarbaz", when the problem is solved by installing the module
"barbazquux":

    exarkun at charm:~$ touch barbazquux.py
    exarkun at charm:~$ pydoc foobarbaz
    Help on module foobarbaz:

    ...
    exarkun at charm:~$ 

I'm sure the cause of this is the incautious handling of ImportError by
pydoc, resulting in the mistaken identification of the problem.

----------
messages: 81821
nosy: exarkun
severity: normal
status: open
title: pydoc reports misleading failure if target module raises an ImportError
type: behavior

_______________________________________
Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue5230>
_______________________________________