Geek Answers Handbook

How do you determine which file is imported into Python using the import statement?

How do you determine which file is imported into Python using the import statement?

I want to determine that I am loading the correct version of a locally modified .py file. Basically the equivalent of "which" in a POSIX environment.

+6
python import
source share
4 answers

Run python with the -v option to enable debug output. When you import a module, Python will print out where the module was imported from:

 $ python -v ... >>> import re # /usr/lib/python2.6/re.pyc matches /usr/lib/python2.6/re.py import re # precompiled from /usr/lib/python2.6/re.pyc ...

If you also want to see in what other places Python was looking for a module, add the second -v :

 $ python -v -v ... >>> import re # trying re.so # trying remodule.so # trying re.py # trying re.pyc # trying /usr/lib/python2.6/re.so # trying /usr/lib/python2.6/remodule.so # trying /usr/lib/python2.6/re.py # /usr/lib/python2.6/re.pyc matches /usr/lib/python2.6/re.py import re # precompiled from /usr/lib/python2.6/re.pyc ...
+10
source share

Look at its __file__ attribute.

+6
source share

I get it. Imported modules have a __file__ field, which is the downloaded file. Combine this with __import__ , I defined a function:

which = lambda str : __import__(str).__file__ .

+2
source share

Put the explicit version identifier in each module.

 __version__ = "Some.version.String"

Put them in every module you write, without exception.

 import someModule print someModule.__version__

This is (a) explicit, (b) easy to manage. You can also use Keyword Substitution from your version control tool to actually populate the version string for each commit.

0
source share

More articles:


All Articles