'Import sys' succeeds in C++ embedded code, but module is not fully visible

[Ben Sizer]

I have the following C++ code and am attempting to embed Python 2.5,
but although the "import sys" statement works, attempting to reference
"sys.path" from inside a function after that point fails. It's as if
it's not treating it as a normal module but as any other global
variable which I'd have to explicitly qualify.


    Py_InitializeEx(0); // the zero skips registration of signal
handlers.
    PyObject* ourNamespace_ = PyDict_New();
    PyDict_SetItemString(ourNamespace_, "__builtins__",
PyEval_GetBuiltins());
    PyObject* locals = PyDict_New();

    const char* scriptStr =
        "print '1'\n"
        "import sys\n"
        "print sys.path\n"
        "def debug_path_info():\n"
        "    print 'These are the directories Python looks into for
modules and source files:'\n"
        "    print '2'\n"
        "    for folder in sys.path:\n"
        "        print folder\n"
        "    print '--------------'\n"
        "    print 'This would be your present working folder/
directory:'\n"
        "    print '3'\n"
        "    print sys.path[0]\n"
        "debug_path_info()\n";

        PyObject* scriptResult = PyRun_String(
                scriptStr,			    // Python code to execute
                Py_file_input,
                ourNamespace_,	 // globals dictionary
                locals);	// locals dictionary

	if (!scriptResult)
	{
		std::cerr << "Python error: " << "Unhandled Python exception from
script." << std::endl;
		PyErr_Print();
	}
	else
	{
		Py_DECREF(scriptResult); // don't need result any more
	}

	Py_DECREF(locals);
	Py_DECREF(ourNamespace_);
	Py_Finalize();


And the output is like this:

1
['E:\\code\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\turbokid-1.0.4-py2.5.egg',
'E:\\code\\
Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\turbocheetah-1.0-py2.5.egg', 'E:\\code\
\Python25\\
lib\\site-packages\\simplejson-1.8.1-py2.5-win32.egg', 'E:\\code\
\Python25\\lib\
\site-packages\\ruledispatch-0.5a0.dev_r2306-py2.5-win32.egg', 'E:\
\code\\Python
25\\lib\\site-packages\\pastescript-1.6.2-py2.5.egg', 'E:\\code\
\Python25\\lib\\
site-packages\\formencode-1.0.1-py2.5.egg', 'E:\\code\\Python25\\lib\
\site-packa
ges\\decoratortools-1.7-py2.5.egg', 'E:\\code\\Python25\\lib\\site-
packages\\con
figobj-4.5.2-py2.5.egg', 'E:\\code\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\
\cherrypy-2.3.0
-py2.5.egg', 'E:\\code\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\kid-0.9.6-
py2.5.egg', 'E:\
\code\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\cheetah-2.0.1-py2.5-win32.egg',
'E:\\code\\
Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\pyprotocols-1.0a0-py2.5-win32.egg', 'E:\
\code\\Pyt
hon25\\lib\\site-packages\\pastedeploy-1.3.1-py2.5.egg', 'E:\\code\
\Python25\\li
b\\site-packages\\paste-1.6-py2.5.egg', 'E:\\code\\Python25\\lib\\site-
packages\
\sqlobject-0.10.0-py2.5.egg', 'E:\\code\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\
\tgfastdat
a-0.9a7-py2.5.egg', 'E:\\code\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\
\webhelpers-0.6-py2.
5.egg', 'E:\\code\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\shove-0.1.3-
py2.5.egg', 'E:\\co
de\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\boto-1.3a-py2.5.egg', 'E:\\code\
\Python25\\lib
\\site-packages\\sqlalchemy-0.5.0beta3-py2.5.egg', 'E:\\code\\Python25\
\lib\\sit
e-packages\\turbojson-1.1.4-py2.5.egg', 'E:\\code\\Python25\\lib\\site-
packages\
\setuptools-0.6c9-py2.5.egg', 'E:\\code\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\
\turbogear
s-1.0.8-py2.5.egg', 'C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\python25_d.zip', 'E:\\code\
\Python25
\\Lib', 'E:\\code\\Python25\\DLLs', 'E:\\code\\Python25\\Lib\\lib-tk',
'e:\\Visu
al Studio 2008\\Projects\\StacklessEmbed\\StacklessEmbed', 'e:\\Visual
Studio 20
08\\Projects\\StacklessEmbed\\Debug', 'E:\\code\\Python25', 'E:\\code\
\Python25\
\lib\\site-packages', 'E:\\code\\Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\PIL',
'E:\\code\\
Python25\\lib\\site-packages\\wx-2.8-msw-unicode']
These are the directories Python looks into for modules and source
files:
2
Python error: Unhandled Python exception from script.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 13, in <module>
  File "<string>", line 7, in debug_path_info
NameError: global name 'sys' is not defined
[12532 refs]


(Incidentally, the Stackless references are because I was originally
trying to embed Stackless, but I reverted to vanilla 2.5 to see if it
was a Stackless specific issue, which it appears not.)

Another interesting thing is that sys.path[0] doesn't appear to be the
current working directory, despite several sources online suggesting
it should be.

What am I doing wrong?

--
Ben Sizer