[7.4.x] Add child modules as attributes of parent modules.

changelog/10337.bugfix.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Fixed but that fake intermediate modules generated by ``--import-mode=importlib`` would not include the
+child modules as attributes of the parent modules.

src/_pytest/pathlib.py

@@ -633,6 +633,9 @@ def insert_missing_modules(modules: Dict[str, ModuleType], module_name: str) ->
     otherwise "src.tests.test_foo" is not importable by ``__import__``.
     """
     module_parts = module_name.split(".")
+    child_module: Union[ModuleType, None] = None
+    module: Union[ModuleType, None] = None
+    child_name: str = ""
     while module_name:
         if module_name not in modules:
             try:
@@ -642,13 +645,22 @@ def insert_missing_modules(modules: Dict[str, ModuleType], module_name: str) ->
                 # ourselves to fall back to creating a dummy module.
                 if not sys.meta_path:
                     raise ModuleNotFoundError
-                importlib.import_module(module_name)
+                module = importlib.import_module(module_name)
             except ModuleNotFoundError:
                 module = ModuleType(
                     module_name,
                     doc="Empty module created by pytest's importmode=importlib.",
                 )
+        else:
+            module = modules[module_name]
+        if child_module:
+            # Add child attribute to the parent that can reference the child
+            # modules.
+            if not hasattr(module, child_name):
+                setattr(module, child_name, child_module)
                 modules[module_name] = module
+        # Keep track of the child module while moving up the tree.
+        child_module, child_name = module, module_name.rpartition(".")[-1]
         module_parts.pop(-1)
         module_name = ".".join(module_parts)
 

testing/test_pathlib.py

@@ -592,3 +592,15 @@ def test_insert_missing_modules(
         modules = {}
         insert_missing_modules(modules, "")
         assert modules == {}
+
+    def test_parent_contains_child_module_attribute(
+        self, monkeypatch: MonkeyPatch, tmp_path: Path
+    ):
+        monkeypatch.chdir(tmp_path)
+        # Use 'xxx' and 'xxy' as parent names as they are unlikely to exist and
+        # don't end up being imported.
+        modules = {"xxx.tests.foo": ModuleType("xxx.tests.foo")}
+        insert_missing_modules(modules, "xxx.tests.foo")
+        assert sorted(modules) == ["xxx", "xxx.tests", "xxx.tests.foo"]
+        assert modules["xxx"].tests is modules["xxx.tests"]
+        assert modules["xxx.tests"].foo is modules["xxx.tests.foo"]