Perplexed by the behavior of import

[Rod Kosloski]

I'm perlexed by an apparent inconsistency in the behavior of the import
statement.

First, the files. There is a simple package, pkg, containing two files: mod.py
and util.py, and a stand-alone module also named util.py:

   *** ./pkg/__init__.py ***
   from mod import *
   *** ./pkg/mod.py ***
   M = 8
   *** ./pkg/util.py ***
   V = 0
   *** ./util.py ***
   from pkg import *
   from pkg.util import *
   U = 0

Next, the Python session:

   Python 2.6.4 (r264:75706, Dec 13 2009, 19:46:11)
   [GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5646) (dot 1)] on darwin
   Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
   >>> import util
   >>> globals()
   {'__builtins__': <module '__builtin__' (built-in)>, '__name__': '__main__',
    '__doc__': None 'util': <module 'util' from 'util.pyc'>, '__package__':
    None}
   >>> from pkg import *
   >>> globals()
   {'__builtins__': <module '__builtin__' (built-in)>, 'M': 8, '__package__':
    None, 'util': <module 'pkg.util' from 'pkg/util.pyc'>, '__name__':
    '__main__', '__doc__': None,
    'mod': <module 'pkg.mod' from 'pkg/mod.pyc'>}

Compare the output of the two globals() statements:
Variable util's value has changed from <module 'util' from 'util.py'....> to
<module 'pkg.util'...>

What's happening to util?

OK, maybe pkg.util replaces the original util because of the pkg import
statement. But then, what about the following:

   Python 2.6.4 (r264:75706, Dec 13 2009, 19:46:11)
   [GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5646) (dot 1)] on darwin
   Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
   >>> util = 0
   >>> globals()
   {'__builtins__': <module '__builtin__' (built-in)>, '__name__': '__main__',
    '__doc__': None, 'util': 0, '__package__': None}
   >>> from pkg import *
   >>> globals()
   {'__builtins__': <module '__builtin__' (built-in)>, 'M': 8, '__package__':
    None, 'util': 0, '__name__': '__main__', '__doc__': None, 'mod': <module
    'pkg.mod' from 'pkg/mod.pyc'>}
   >>>

Now the value of util is unchanged across the pkg import statement.

Why the difference?

Thanks.