I create a.py and b/__init__.py:
$ ls
$ cat > a.py
import b
print "a"
$ mkdir b
$ cat > b/__init__.py
print "b"
It works as expected:
$ python a.py
b
a
I remove b/__init__.py and create b.py in the top folder:
$ rm b/__init__.py
$ cat > b.py
print "new b"
$ python a.py
b
a
It doesn't print "new b", instead it still prints "b". Why?
You just removed b/__init__.py but there sure is a b/__init__.pyc and in your a.py you're still importing b (import b). This may be causing the interpreter to assume is already bytecompiled because it sees b/__init__.pyc and take this which makes it print the same order.
Note that this command rm b/__init__.py just removed the file, not the folder nor the .pyc. That might be the reason.
Try rm -r b and your code should work as expected.
This is indeed the expected behavior with the python interpreter. If you don't want the interpreter to byte-compile files you can call it with the -B parameter but this is not recommended for performance issues because byte-compiled code makes the program runs much faster.
You can read more about modules and byte-compiled files and search paths in the docs.
Hope this helps!
.pycfiles?