On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 4:52 PM, Brett Cannon wrote [1]:
..
> I say this every time I give an import talk and it has been brought up here
> before but obviously not everyone catches it (which is understandable as I
> think when it came up on python-dev it was at the tail end of a discussion),
> so I am just going to repeat myself:
>   Do not put junk in fromlist if you call __import__ directly! Use
> importlib.import_module! Or if you have a *really* good reason to not use
> it, then use ``__import__(name); module = sys.modules[name]``.

I think one of the reasons the message does not sink in (at least this is the reason in my case) is that a user who discovers that __import__('foo.bar') returns foo instead of bar, looks up help(__import__) to find that

"""
When importing a module from a package, note that __import__('A.B', ...) returns package A when fromlist is empty, but its submodule B when fromlist is not empty.
"""

Passing fromlist=["dummy"] seems like a natural solution after reading this.

The ReST documentation [2] is slightly better as it contain a recommendation that says: "If you simply want to import a module (potentially within a package) by name, you can call __import__() and then look it up in sys.modules." However this still fails to mention the (better IMO) alternative of using importlib.import_module().

I believe the __import__ docstring should start with a recommendation not to use it directly and use importlib.import_module() instead, while the ReST documentation should grow a warning not to use dummy fromlist and the recommendation to use __import__() followed by sys.modules lookup should be changed to a recommendation to use mportlib.import_module().

[1] "Peculiar import code in pickle.py" <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2010-July/101906.html>.
[2] http://docs.python.org/dev/library/functions.html?#__import__

More rationale for not using a dummy fromlist, from Brett Cannon:

“Pulling from sys.modules is the correct way to do this. There are subtle
issues when using a bunk fromlist argument (empty modules, double
initialization, etc.). If one does not use importlib.import_module --
written *specifically* to prevent people from doing the nasty hack with the fromlist -- then you should use the sys.modules approach, period”

The docstring of __import__ was updated to mention importlib in 3d490c3a019e, for #7397.  Attached patch edits the docs.

Patch looks good to me.

Patch committed in 3.2.

Attached patch ports the docstring change to 2.7 and edits the reST docs, please approve.

New changeset 7bfc0a45542c by Éric Araujo in branch '3.2':
Let the doc of __import__ link to importlib (#9254).
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/7bfc0a45542c

New changeset 4a6cb2d9e906 by Éric Araujo in branch 'default':
Merge from 3.2 (#9254, #8982, #9788)
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/4a6cb2d9e906

New changeset 751f28564a45 by R David Murray in branch '2.7':
Closes #9254: backport __import__ docstring/doc mentions of importlib.
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/751f28564a45