[BUG] ImportError: ImportError: __import__ not found Python 3.7

[ObjatieGroba]

I used python_example (https://github.com/pybind/python_example) to create new package.
After installation I have

>>> import mymodule
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: ImportError: __import__ not found

At:
  <string>(3): <module>
  <frozen importlib._bootstrap>(222): _call_with_frames_removed
  <frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>(914): create_module
  <frozen importlib._bootstrap>(577): module_from_spec
  <frozen importlib._bootstrap>(666): _load_unlocked
  <frozen importlib._bootstrap>(958): _find_and_load_unlocked
  <frozen importlib._bootstrap>(969): _find_and_load
  <stdin>(1): <module>

On python3.8 works perfectly

Reproducible example code

Debian10. Python 3.7

Clone and install python_example

Add this code to main.cpp

auto global = m.attr("__dict__");
py::exec(R"(
    import contextlib
)", global);

EDIT (@YannickJadoul): "After reading, remove this checklist and the template text in parentheses below."

[henryiii]

Why is this installing an egg? You should be using wheels. pip install ., never python setup.py install or family - installing with python setup.py install is deprecated and discouraged heavily by the Python Packaging Authority. If you run setup.py and never import setuptools, you get a pure distutils build, which is likely broken. And if you don't run it with pip, pip can't insert shims needed for building.

Python devs pretty much will not touch distutils, even to fix it, and are considering getting rid of it entirely. Setuptools now vendors distutils.

[ObjatieGroba]

Why is this installing an egg? You should be using wheels. pip install ., never python setup.py install or family - installing with python setup.py install is deprecated and discouraged heavily by the Python Packaging Authority. If you run setup.py and never import setuptools, you get a pure distutils build, which is likely broken. And if you don't run it with pip, pip can't insert shims needed for building.

Python devs pretty much will not touch distutils, even to fix it, and are considering getting rid of it entirely. Setuptools now vendors distutils.

Hi, thank you.

pip install . leads to the same error.

cmake_example uses setuptoools

What should I do to install it?

[ObjatieGroba]

I found it.

auto global = m.attr("__dict__");
py::exec(R"(
    import contextlib
)", global);

This code does not working on Python 3.7 and earlier

[henryiii]

This code is not part of pybind11 or the examples, as far as I can tell?

Ah, you edited the description, sorry.

[henryiii]

I don't think that's the right way to import something. You should do py::module::import("contextlib"). Certainly, it's not valid to put a module's __dict__ in as a replacement for the global context.