strange list.sort() behavior on import, del and inport again

[dstemmer]

BPO	5892
Nosy	@loewis
Files	bugs.rar

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2009-05-01.06:31:53.187>
created_at = <Date 2009-05-01.04:51:57.351>
labels = ['invalid']
title = 'strange list.sort() behavior on import, del and inport again'
updated_at = <Date 2009-05-01.06:31:53.158>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/dstemmer'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2009-05-01.06:31:53.158>
actor = 'loewis'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2009-05-01.06:31:53.187>
closer = 'loewis'
components = []
creation = <Date 2009-05-01.04:51:57.351>
creator = 'dstemmer'
dependencies = []
files = ['13826']
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 5892
keywords = []
message_count = 2.0
messages = ['86862', '86865']
nosy_count = 2.0
nosy_names = ['loewis', 'dstemmer']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'not a bug'
stage = None
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = None
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue5892'
versions = ['Python 2.6']

[dstemmer]

Given two modules, I've seen the following kind of strange behavior with
list sorting on import and delete; a list that has been imported, sorted
and deleted remains sorted on a second import:

my_module.py:

some_list = ['b','a']

other_module.py:

from  my_module import some_list
print some_list
some_list.sort()
print some_list
del some_list
from  my_module import some_list
print some_list

Output is:

['b','a']
['a','b']
['a','b']

Sorry if it's already been reported.

[loewis]

That is not a bug in Python. The import statement merely adds a
reference to the list into your module, so both variables point to the
very same list (my_module.some_list is other_module.some_list).
Therefore, any changes made to the list through my_module will also
affect the list as seen from other_module.

Closing the report as invalid.