I’d like to report a discrepancy between the documentation and implementation of the method imp.find_module().

The documentation <https://docs.python.org/3.7/library/imp.html#imp.find_module> currently says “If the module does not live in a file, the returned file is None, pathname is the __empty_string__, […]”

The implementation <https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/master/Lib/imp.py#L272>, on the other hand, returns __None__ for built-in and frozen modules.

Yours,
Stefan

If I understand correctly, this may be better.

Try to find the module name. If path is omitted or None, the list of directory names given by sys.path is searched. If path is built-in or frozen modules, return None instead.

BTW, the dosstring should also be updated, I will not continue search the path if the path in build-in or frozen. and this module is deprecated since version 3.4

Hi, thank you for your proposal. However, your version still contains the discepancy. Maybe I formulated the problem not clear, so let's try again:

The documentation should state that "pathname" will be None (not the empty string) for built-in and frozen modules in order to be in line with the implementation.

Thank you very much for your efforts.
Kind regards, Stefan

> The documentation should state that "pathname" will be None (not the empty string) for built-in and frozen modules in order to be in line with the implementation.

Both the "file" and "pathname" will be None for built-in and frozen modules, right? In the PR @ericsnowcurrently suggested add:

>  If the module is built-in or frozen then *file* and *pathname* are both ``None`` and the *description* tuple contains empty...

I think it also works.

New changeset 967b84c913c7b09ae2fc86272cb9373415e2beaf by Julien Palard (Windson yang) in branch 'master':
bpo-35325: Doc: imp.find_module() return value documentation discrepancy (GH-11040)
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/967b84c913c7b09ae2fc86272cb9373415e2beaf

New changeset 01b47c94ca8ef89c5ac5fda0ab1074e73234a738 by Miss Islington (bot) in branch '3.7':
bpo-35325: Doc: imp.find_module() return value documentation discrepancy (GH-11040)
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/01b47c94ca8ef89c5ac5fda0ab1074e73234a738

New changeset 14afe203d6937069c66b7e9c4a9fc0db49b32c19 by Miss Islington (bot) in branch '3.8':
bpo-35325: Doc: imp.find_module() return value documentation discrepancy (GH-11040)
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/14afe203d6937069c66b7e9c4a9fc0db49b32c19