Issue #25771: Tweak ValueError message when package isn't specified

for importlib.util.resolve_name() but is needed.

Thanks to Martin Panter for the bug report.

2 files changed, 5 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/Lib/importlib/util.py b/Lib/importlib/util.py
index 1dbff26..39cb0f7 100644
--- a/Lib/importlib/util.py
+++ b/Lib/importlib/util.py
@@ -22,8 +22,8 @@ def resolve_name(name, package):
     if not name.startswith('.'):
         return name
     elif not package:
-        raise ValueError('{!r} is not a relative name '
-                         '(no leading dot)'.format(name))
+        raise ValueError(f'no package specified for {repr(name)} '
+                         '(required for relative module names)')
     level = 0
     for character in name:
         if character != '.':
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index f87ed38..f4e7e54 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -109,6 +109,9 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #25771: Tweak the exception message for importlib.util.resolve_name()
+  when 'package' isn't specified but necessary.
+
 - Issue #6478: _strptime's regexp cache now is reset after changing timezone
   with time.tzset().