Bizarre python ImportError

Question

Here's my setup: a Mac, running OS X Tiger. Windows XP running in a virtual machine (Parallels). Windows XP has my Mac home directory mapped as a network drive.

I have two files in a directory of my Mac home directory:

foo.py

pass

test.py

import foo

If I run test.py from within my virtual machine by typing 'python test.py', I get this:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "test.py", line 1, in <module>
    import foo
ImportError: No module named foo

If I try to import foo from the console (running python under Windows from the same directory), all is well:

Python 2.5.1 (r251:54863, Apr 18 2007, 08:51:08) [MSC v.1310 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import foo
>>>

If I run test.py with Mac python, all is well.

If I copy test.py and foo.py to a different directory, I can run test.py under Windows without problems.

There is an init.py in the original directory, but it is empty. Furthermore, copying it with the other files doesn't break anything in the previous paragraph.

There are no python-related environment variables set.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Add import sys; print sys.path to the start of test.py. See what it prints out in the failing case. If "." isn't on the list, that may be your problem.

Answer 2

As a random guess: are the permissions on foo.py accessable from the windows client? (eg try opening with notepad from the virtual machine).

If that's OK, try running:

python -v -v test.py

and looking at the output (alternatively, set PYTHONVERBOSE=2). This should list all the places it tries to import foo from. Comparing it with a similar trace on the working machine may give some further clues.