python import breaks in server environment but works fine on my computer -

i have research server using run python scripts. server has python 2.4. problem when try run tests on server, breaks on import statements. file structure this:

|-- readme.md |-- poly.py `-- tests     |-- __init__.py     |-- test_foil.py 

tests/__init__.py looks like

from test_foil import * unittest.main() 

and test_foil.py looks like

import unittest poly import poly 

on computer, when run python tests/__init__.py tests execute. when run on server error

from test_foil import * traceback (most recent call last):   file "tests/__init__.py", line 1, in ?     test_foil import *   file "/home/simon_team/partition_poly/tests/test_foil.py", line 2, in ?     poly import poly importerror: no module named poly 

it not 100% critical run tests on server, convenient way of making sure code 2.4 compatible before running actual code. can't life of me figure out why behaving differently on 2 machines, since docs don't indicate behavoir of import changed 2.4 2.7

import sys  sys.path.append("path_to_directory")  poly import poly