bpo-37444: Update differing exception between builtins and importlib (GH-14869)

Imports now raise `TypeError` instead of `ValueError` for relative import failures. This makes things consistent between `builtins.__import__` and `importlib.__import__` as well as using a more natural import for the failure.


https://bugs.python.org/issue37444



Automerge-Triggered-By: @brettcannon

Doc/library/importlib.rst

@@ -1433,13 +1433,18 @@ an :term:`importer`.
    ``importlib.util.resolve_name('sys', __package__)`` without doing a
    check to see if the **package** argument is needed.
 
-   :exc:`ValueError` is raised if **name** is a relative module name but
-   package is a false value (e.g. ``None`` or the empty string).
-   :exc:`ValueError` is also raised a relative name would escape its containing
+   :exc:`ImportError` is raised if **name** is a relative module name but
+   **package** is a false value (e.g. ``None`` or the empty string).
+   :exc:`ImportError` is also raised a relative name would escape its containing
    package (e.g. requesting ``..bacon`` from within the ``spam`` package).
 
    .. versionadded:: 3.3
 
+   .. versionchanged:: 3.9
+      To improve consistency with import statements, raise
+      :exc:`ImportError` instead of :exc:`ValueError` for invalid relative
+      import attempts.
+
 .. function:: find_spec(name, package=None)
 
    Find the :term:`spec <module spec>` for a module, optionally relative to

Doc/whatsnew/3.9.rst

@@ -75,6 +75,12 @@ New Features
 Other Language Changes
 ======================
 
+* :func:`builtins.__import__` now raises :exc:`ImportError` instead of
+  :exc:`ValueError` as used to occur when a relative import went past
+  its top-level package.
+  (Contributed by Ngalim Siregar in :issue:`37444`.)
+
+
 * Python now gets the absolute path of the script filename specified on
   the command line (ex: ``python3 script.py``): the ``__file__`` attribute of
   the ``__main__`` module, ``sys.argv[0]`` and ``sys.path[0]`` become an
@@ -118,6 +124,13 @@ pprint
 :mod:`pprint` can now pretty-print :class:`types.SimpleNamespace`.
 (Contributed by Carl Bordum Hansen in :issue:`37376`.)
 
+importlib
+---------
+
+To improve consistency with import statements, :func:`importlib.util.resolve_name`
+now raises :exc:`ImportError` instead of :exc:`ValueError` for invalid relative
+import attempts.
+(Contributed by Ngalim Siregar in :issue:`37444`.)
 
 Optimizations
 =============
@@ -180,4 +193,11 @@ Porting to Python 3.9
 This section lists previously described changes and other bugfixes
 that may require changes to your code.
 
+Changes in the Python API
+-------------------------
 
+* :func:`builtins.__import__` and :func:`importlib.util.resolve_name` now raise
+  :exc:`ImportError` where it previously raised :exc:`ValueError`. Callers
+  catching the specific exception type and supporting both Python 3.9 and
+  earlier versions will need to catch both:
+  ``except (ImportError, ValueError):``

Lib/importlib/_bootstrap.py

@@ -873,7 +873,7 @@ def _resolve_name(name, package, level):
     """Resolve a relative module name to an absolute one."""
     bits = package.rsplit('.', level - 1)
     if len(bits) < level:
-        raise ValueError('attempted relative import beyond top-level package')
+        raise ImportError('attempted relative import beyond top-level package')
     base = bits[0]
     return '{}.{}'.format(base, name) if name else base
 

Lib/importlib/util.py

@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ def resolve_name(name, package):
     if not name.startswith('.'):
         return name
     elif not package:
-        raise ValueError(f'no package specified for {repr(name)} '
+        raise ImportError(f'no package specified for {repr(name)} '
                           '(required for relative module names)')
     level = 0
     for character in name:

Lib/test/test_importlib/import_/test_relative_imports.py

@@ -156,7 +156,7 @@ class RelativeImports:
                     {'__name__': 'pkg', '__path__': ['blah']})
         def callback(global_):
             self.__import__('pkg')
-            with self.assertRaises(ValueError):
+            with self.assertRaises(ImportError):
                 self.__import__('', global_, fromlist=['top_level'],
                                     level=2)
         self.relative_import_test(create, globals_, callback)
@@ -167,7 +167,7 @@ class RelativeImports:
         globals_ = {'__package__': 'pkg'}, {'__name__': 'pkg.module'}
         def callback(global_):
             self.__import__('pkg')
-            with self.assertRaises(ValueError):
+            with self.assertRaises(ImportError):
                 self.__import__('', global_, fromlist=['top_level'],
                                     level=2)
         self.relative_import_test(create, globals_, callback)

Lib/test/test_importlib/test_util.py

@@ -375,7 +375,7 @@ class ResolveNameTests:
 
     def test_no_package(self):
         # .bacon in ''
-        with self.assertRaises(ValueError):
+        with self.assertRaises(ImportError):
             self.util.resolve_name('.bacon', '')
 
     def test_in_package(self):
@@ -390,7 +390,7 @@ class ResolveNameTests:
 
     def test_escape(self):
         # ..bacon in spam
-        with self.assertRaises(ValueError):
+        with self.assertRaises(ImportError):
             self.util.resolve_name('..bacon', 'spam')
 
 
@@ -518,7 +518,7 @@ class FindSpecTests:
         with util.temp_module(name, pkg=True) as pkg_dir:
             fullname, _ = util.submodule(name, subname, pkg_dir)
             relname = '.' + subname
-            with self.assertRaises(ValueError):
+            with self.assertRaises(ImportError):
                 self.util.find_spec(relname)
             self.assertNotIn(name, sorted(sys.modules))
             self.assertNotIn(fullname, sorted(sys.modules))

Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core and Builtins/2019-07-20-22-34-42.bpo-37444.UOd3Xs.rst

+Update differing exception between :meth:`builtins.__import__` and :meth:`importlib.__import__`.

Python/import.c

@@ -1671,7 +1671,7 @@ resolve_name(PyThreadState *tstate, PyObject *name, PyObject *globals, int level
             goto error;
         }
         else if (last_dot == -1) {
-            _PyErr_SetString(tstate, PyExc_ValueError,
+            _PyErr_SetString(tstate, PyExc_ImportError,
                              "attempted relative import beyond top-level "
                              "package");
             goto error;