[Python-Dev] ImportError on no permission

[Georg Brandl]

Today, I got a request regarding importing semantics.

When a module file cannot be opened because of, say, lacking read permission,
the rest of sys.path will be tried, and if nothing else is found, you get
"no module named foo".

The reporter claimed, and I understand that, that this is a pain to debug and
it would be good to at least add a better message to the import error.

Now, why don't we change the semantics as follows: if a file with matching name
exists (in import.c::find_module), but opening fails, ImportError is raised
immediately with the concrete error message, and without trying the rest of
sys.path. That shouldn't cause any working and sane setup to break, or did I
overlook something obvious here?

Georg

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