Import and absolute file names, sys.path including ''... or not

[Jean-Michel Pichavant]

Hi fellows,

I spent quite a time on a malicious issue. I found out that there is a 
slight difference on the sys.path content when either executing code 
from a shell or from within a script.
This difference is the '' item, which is present in the shell form of 
sys.path.

For instance, let's write this code in test.py:
import sys
print sys.path

shell form:
python
Python 2.4.4 (#2, Oct 22 2008, 19:52:44)
[GCC 4.1.2 20061115 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-21)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
 >>> import test
['', other misc stuff] <- sys.path


script form:
python test.py
[other misc stuff] <- sys.path

The '' item is not here.

Problem is, '' is required for absolute path to be properly resolved. In 
my code I sometimes have to import file in that way : 
__import__('/some/absolute/path')

So the immediate solution is to write this:
if '' not in sys.path:
    sys.path.append('') # make sure absolute path are properly resolved 
in any case

I'm not a big fan of manipulating sys.path at the begining of my files. 
Is there something I'm doing wrong ? Is there a standard/nice way to 
support absolute path ? I guess '' is in fact aimed at resolving 
relative path from the execution directory...

best regards,

Jean-Michel