Davide Rizzo added the comment: As far as I understand, assuming dir/ contains a __main__.py file
$ python dir is equivalent to $ python dir/__main__.py in that it's behaviourally nothing more than executing a script in that dir and setting sys.path accordingly. This is the same in Python 2 and Python 3. This, together with the notion that zip files and directories are treated in the same way, allows running python file.zip since we have no option for executing a file *within* the zip file. Altogether, this is a significantly different behaviour than the one for "python -m pkg". That would be closer to: >>> import pkg.__main__ This also explains why the package __init__ is executed first (you import the package first, then the module). A significant difference is that it's not a real import (just as pkg.__init__ is not imported) and sys.modules is not affected. ---------- nosy: +davide.rizzo _______________________________________ Python tracker <rep...@bugs.python.org> <http://bugs.python.org/issue24632> _______________________________________ _______________________________________________ Python-bugs-list mailing list Unsubscribe: https://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-bugs-list/archive%40mail-archive.com
