Can anyone explain python's relative imports?
<p>I can't for the life of me get python's relative imports to work. I have created a simple example of where it does not function:</p>

<p>The directory structure is:</p>

<pre><code>/__init__.py
/start.py
/parent.py
/sub/__init__.py
/sub/relative.py
</code></pre>

<p><code>/start.py</code> contains just: <code>import sub.relative</code></p>

<p><code>/sub/relative.py</code> contains just <code>from .. import parent</code></p>

<p>All other files are blank.</p>

<p>When executing the following on the command line:</p>

<pre><code>$ cd /
$ python start.py
</code></pre>

<p>I get:</p>

<pre><code>Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "start.py", line 1, in &lt;module&gt;
    import sub.relative
  File "/home/cvondrick/sandbox/sub/relative.py", line 1, in &lt;module&gt;
    from .. import parent
ValueError: Attempted relative import beyond toplevel package
</code></pre>

<p>I am using Python 2.6. Why is this the case? How do I make this sandbox example work?</p>
