Issue #16489: Make it clearer that importlib.find_loader() requires
the user to import any parent packages.
diff --git a/Doc/library/importlib.rst b/Doc/library/importlib.rst
index 681f1d9..083656e 100644
--- a/Doc/library/importlib.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/importlib.rst
@@ -94,11 +94,10 @@
:exc:`ValueError` is raised). Otherwise a search using :attr:`sys.meta_path`
is done. ``None`` is returned if no loader is found.
- A dotted name does not have its parent's implicitly imported. If that is
- desired (although not nessarily required to find the loader, it will most
- likely be needed if the loader actually is used to load the module), then
- you will have to import the packages containing the module prior to calling
- this function.
+ A dotted name does not have its parent's implicitly imported as that requires
+ loading them and that may not be desired. To properly import a submodule you
+ will need to import all parent packages of the submodule and use the correct
+ argument to *path*.
.. function:: invalidate_caches()
diff --git a/Lib/importlib/__init__.py b/Lib/importlib/__init__.py
index 6f40dac..22c90f2 100644
--- a/Lib/importlib/__init__.py
+++ b/Lib/importlib/__init__.py
@@ -55,7 +55,9 @@
value of 'path' given to the finders. None is returned if no loader could
be found.
- Dotted names do not have their parent packages implicitly imported.
+ Dotted names do not have their parent packages implicitly imported. You will
+ most likely need to explicitly import all parent packages in the proper
+ order for a submodule to get the correct loader.
"""
try:
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 47bf94c..217eecd7 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -271,6 +271,9 @@
Documentation
-------------
+- Issue #16489: Make it clearer that importlib.find_loader() requires any and
+ all packages to be separately imported.
+
- Issue #16400: Update the description of which versions of a given package
PyPI displays.