Index: Misc/NEWS
===================================================================
--- Misc/NEWS	(revision 79760)
+++ Misc/NEWS	(working copy)
@@ -176,6 +176,10 @@
 - Issue #1220212: Added os.kill support for Windows, including support for 
   sending CTRL+C and CTRL+BREAK events to console subprocesses.
 
+- Issue #7559: unittest: TestLoader.loadTestsFromName() now lets ImportErrors
+  bubble up when importing from a module with a bad import statement.  Before
+  the method raised an AttributeError.
+
 Extension Modules
 -----------------
 
Index: Lib/unittest/test/test_loader.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/unittest/test/test_loader.py	(revision 79760)
+++ Lib/unittest/test/test_loader.py	(working copy)
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
+import os
 import sys
 import types
 
+from contextlib import contextmanager
+from test import test_support
 
 import unittest
 
@@ -259,6 +262,39 @@
         else:
             self.fail("TestLoader.loadTestsFromName failed to raise AttributeError")
 
+    # "The specifier name is a ``dotted name'' that may resolve either to a
+    # module...."
+    #
+    # What happens when a module is found but it has a bad import statement?
+    def test_loadTestsFromName__bad_import(self):
+
+        @contextmanager
+        def newdirinpath(dir):
+            os.mkdir(dir)
+            sys.path.insert(0, dir)
+            yield
+            sys.path.pop(0)
+            test_support.rmtree(dir)
+
+        with newdirinpath(test_support.TESTFN), \
+            test_support.EnvironmentVarGuard() as env:
+            env['PYTHONPATH'] = test_support.TESTFN
+            file_name = 'foofoo' + os.extsep + "py"
+            file_path = os.path.join(test_support.TESTFN, file_name)
+            f = open(file_path, 'w')
+            f.write('import barbar')
+            f.close()
+
+            loader = unittest.TestLoader()
+
+            try:
+                loader.loadTestsFromName('foofoo')
+            except ImportError, e:
+                self.assertEqual(str(e), "No module named barbar")
+            else:
+                self.fail("TestLoader.loadTestsFromName failed to raise an "
+                          "ImportError")
+
     # "The specifier name is a ``dotted name'' that may resolve either to
     # a module, a test case class, a TestSuite instance, a test method
     # within a test case class, or a callable object which returns a
Index: Lib/unittest/loader.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/unittest/loader.py	(revision 79760)
+++ Lib/unittest/loader.py	(working copy)
@@ -74,6 +74,34 @@
                                                self.suiteClass)
         return tests
 
+    # The stack-walking code of this method was taken from--
+    #
+    # http://twistedmatrix.com/trac/browser/trunk/twisted/python/reflect.py#L382
+    def _importWithExceptionCheck(self, module_name, module_not_found):
+        """Import the given module while checking for a module not found.
+
+        An empty list should be passed in for the module_not_found parameter.
+
+        If this method raises an exception due to a module not found, then
+        this method adds an element to module_not_found so the list evaluates
+        to True.  This lets the caller distinguish between an ImportError due
+        to a bad import statements and an ImportError due to a module not
+        found -- while allowing the original exception to bubble up untouched
+        in the latter case.
+
+        """
+        try:
+            return __import__(module_name)
+        except ImportError:
+            excType, excValue, excTraceback = sys.exc_info()
+            while excTraceback:
+                execName = excTraceback.tb_frame.f_globals["__name__"]
+                if execName is None:  # python 2.4+ cleans up execName.
+                    raise excType, excValue, excTraceback
+                excTraceback = excTraceback.tb_next
+            module_not_found.append(1)
+            raise
+
     def loadTestsFromName(self, name, module=None):
         """Return a suite of all tests cases given a string specifier.
 
@@ -88,15 +116,22 @@
             parts_copy = parts[:]
             while parts_copy:
                 try:
-                    module = __import__('.'.join(parts_copy))
+                    import_name = '.'.join(parts_copy)
+                    module_not_found = []
+                    module = self._importWithExceptionCheck(import_name,
+                                                            module_not_found)
                     break
                 except ImportError:
                     del parts_copy[-1]
-                    if not parts_copy:
+                    if not parts_copy or not module_not_found:
                         raise
             parts = parts[1:]
         obj = module
         for part in parts:
+            # If the module was not found above, then the following line
+            # raises an AttributeError.  We keep this behavior rather than
+            # allowing the original ImportError to bubble up so as not to
+            # break code that is currently catching AttributeError.
             parent, obj = obj, getattr(obj, part)
 
         if isinstance(obj, types.ModuleType):