import vs. subdirectory search

[John Nagle]

Some obscure import issues:

    I'm running Python 2.3.4 from a CGI script on a shared hosting Linux system.
The CGI program is being executed from Apache, as "nobody".  I have some
local modules installed in "~myname/lib/python"; these include
"MySQLdb" and "M2Crypto".

    Since this is running as "nobody", I append

	/home/myname/lib/python

to sys.path.

    Within the CGI programs,

	import MySQLdb				# works fine
	import M2Crypto				# works fine
	import SSL				# "No module named SSL"

The problem is that SSL is in a subdirectory of the M2Crypto directory,
and that's not being searched.  I can execute "import M2Crypto.SSL",
but that doesn't have the same effect; it puts SSL in a different
place in the namespace.  I'm trying to avoid that; it causes obscure
aliasing problems.

    On Python 2.4 under Windows 2000, importing from a subdirectory
appears to work.  Is that a Python 2.3.4 thing, or a Linux thing,
or something else?

    (The idea is to be able to run (mostly) the same Python code on Windows, for
test, and Linux, for production.)

				John Nagle