Execfile() - bug / strange behavior

[Amit Patel]

I'm trying to understand why execfile(fn) is different from exec
open(fn,'r').read().  Here's my program:

====
def timbot():
    a = 3
    execfile("1.txt")
    print a
    print locals()

timbot()
====

Then I have 1.txt:

====
a = 5
b = 8
====


When I run this, I expect to see a is 5, but I get:

====
3
{'b': 8, 'a': 3}
====

I don't understand why variable a is not set, but b is!  Even
stranger, when I try to print b from timbot(), it gives me NameError,
even though it's in locals()!

When I change execfile("1.txt") to exec open("1.txt",'r').read(), it
works just fine!



This seems to be different from any recent execfile bugs I can find on
Deja, but it sounds like it could be the the same as a bug reported in
**1996** (egads! Was Tim even a bot back then? Did we even have 1.5?):

http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=145064312&fmt=text

Any ideas?  Either why it's still a bug or what I'm doing wrong or why
the documentation is misleading ..?

    - Amit

[In case anyone is wondering, this is Python 1.5.2 for Linux, from RH 6.1]