make pkutil path arg less ambiguous

closes #90149

Author: drts01

Doc/library/pkgutil.rst

@@ -127,7 +127,8 @@ support.
    Yields :class:`ModuleInfo` for all submodules on *path*, or, if
    *path* is ``None``, all top-level modules on :data:`sys.path`.
 
-   *path* should be either ``None`` or a list of paths to look for modules in.
+   *path* should be either ``None`` or a list of paths (List[str]) to search
+   for modules.
 
    *prefix* is a string to output on the front of every module name on output.
 
@@ -148,7 +149,8 @@ support.
    Yields :class:`ModuleInfo` for all modules recursively on
    *path*, or, if *path* is ``None``, all accessible modules.
 
-   *path* should be either ``None`` or a list of paths to look for modules in.
+   *path* should be either ``None`` or a list of paths (List[str]) to search
+   for modules.
 
    *prefix* is a string to output on the front of every module name on output.
 

Lib/pkgutil.py

@@ -40,8 +40,8 @@ def walk_packages(path=None, prefix='', onerror=None):
     """Yields ModuleInfo for all modules recursively
     on path, or, if path is None, all accessible modules.
 
-    'path' should be either None or a list of paths to look for
-    modules in.
+    'path' should be either None or a list of paths (List[str]) to search
+    for modules.
 
     'prefix' is a string to output on the front of every module name
     on output.
@@ -97,17 +97,17 @@ def iter_modules(path=None, prefix=''):
     """Yields ModuleInfo for all submodules on path,
     or, if path is None, all top-level modules on sys.path.
 
-    'path' should be either None or a list of paths to look for
-    modules in.
+    'path' should be either None or a list of paths (List[str]) to search
+    for modules.
 
     'prefix' is a string to output on the front of every module name
     on output.
     """
     if path is None:
         importers = iter_importers()
     elif isinstance(path, str):
-        raise ValueError("path must be None or list of paths to look for "
-                        "modules in")
+        raise ValueError("path must be None or a list of paths (List[str]) to"
+                        " search for modules")
     else:
         importers = map(get_importer, path)
 

Lib/test/test_pkgutil.py

@@ -130,8 +130,9 @@ def test_issue44061_iter_modules(self):
             del sys.path[0]
             sys.modules.pop(pkg, None)
 
-        # assert path must be None or list of paths
-        expected_msg = "path must be None or list of paths to look for modules in"
+        # assert path must be None or a list of paths (List[str])
+        expected_msg = r"path must be None or a list of paths \(List\[str\]\) " \
+            "to search for modules"
         with self.assertRaisesRegex(ValueError, expected_msg):
             list(pkgutil.iter_modules("invalid_path"))