set __path__ = [] for frozen packages

[brettcannon]

BPO	18065
Nosy	@warsaw, @brettcannon

^{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 = 'https://github.com/brettcannon'
closed_at = <Date 2013-06-01.03:23:06.081>
created_at = <Date 2013-05-25.23:21:02.008>
labels = ['interpreter-core', 'type-bug']
title = 'set __path__ = [] for frozen packages'
updated_at = <Date 2013-06-01.03:23:06.080>
user = 'https://github.com/brettcannon'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2013-06-01.03:23:06.080>
actor = 'brett.cannon'
assignee = 'brett.cannon'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2013-06-01.03:23:06.081>
closer = 'brett.cannon'
components = ['Interpreter Core']
creation = <Date 2013-05-25.23:21:02.008>
creator = 'brett.cannon'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 18065
keywords = []
message_count = 2.0
messages = ['190034', '190436']
nosy_count = 3.0
nosy_names = ['barry', 'brett.cannon', 'python-dev']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue18065'
versions = ['Python 3.4']

[brettcannon]

If you import the frozen __phello__ package, you will notice that __phello__.__path__ == ['__phello__']. While that seems innocuous, that could potentially lead to incorrect results if there just so happens to be a directory named __phello__ which contains a file that isn't a frozen submodule (i.e. FrozenImporter can't find the submodule but PathFinder can find a file that happens to match the module's name).

So for that reason I want to simply set __path__ = [] for frozen packages. The language reference for import states setting __path__ to anything makes a module a package and that it just needs to be an iterable that only returns strings (http://docs.python.org/3.4/reference/import.html#packages), so an empty list works. Plus __package__ contains the same information so there is no lost data by doing this.

Can anyone think of a good reason not to do this? I can't see why someone would be relying upon this for any reason since the existence of __path__ itself is enough to determine something is a package.

[python-dev]

New changeset 82db02a2e023 by Brett Cannon in branch 'default':
Issue bpo-18065: For frozen packages set __path__ to [].
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/82db02a2e023