On 26 Feb 2007 13:00:55 -0800, Ziga Seilnacht <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Feb 26, 7:44 pm, "Chris Mellon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > This appears to be a change in behavior from Python 2.4 to Python 2.5, > > which I can't find documented anywhere. It may be windows only, or > > related to Windows behavior. > > > > In 2.4, the current directory (os.curdir) was on sys.path. In 2.5, it > > appears to be the base directory of the running script. For example, > > if you execute the file testme.py in your current working directory, > > '' is on sys.path. If you execute c:\Python25\Scripts\testme.py, '' is > > *not* on sys.path, and C:\Python25\Scripts is. > > > > That means if you run a Python script located in another directory, > > modules/etc in your current working directory will not be found. This > > makes .py scripts in the PYTHONHOME\Scripts file moderately useless, > > because they won't find anything in the current working directory. > > > > I first noticed this because it breaks Trial, but I'm sure there are > > other scripts affected by it. Is this desirable behavior? Is there > > anything to work around it except by pushing os.curdir onto sys.path? > > > The change was intentional and is mentioned in the NEWS file: > > - Patch #1232023: Stop including current directory in search path > on Windows. > > This unifies Python's behaviour across different platforms; the > docs always said that the current directory is inserted *only* > if the script directory is unavailable: > > As initialized upon program startup, the first item of this list, > path[0], is the directory containing the script that was used to > invoke the Python interpreter. If the script directory is not > available (e.g. if the interpreter is invoked interactively or > if the script is read from standard input), path[0] is the empty > string, which directs Python to search modules in the current > directory first. Notice that the script directory is inserted > before the entries inserted as a result of PYTHONPATH. > > The old behaviour was never intentional and wasn't desired, > because users could break an application simply by running it > from a directory that contained inappropriately named files. > > For details see the bug report and patch submission: > http://www.python.org/sf/1526785 > http://www.python.org/sf/1232023 > > Ziga >
Considering that it's a backwards incompatible breaking change (although I understand why it was done), you'd think it deserved mention in the more prominent "Whats new in Python 2.5" section on the website, in addition to a one-liner in the NEWS file. Ah well, while I'm sure I'm not the only one who ran into it, it doesn't seem to be causing mass calamity and I know now. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
