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What happens behind execution of an import stat...
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Shivashis Padhi
August 16, 2020
Education
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1.5k
What happens behind execution of an import statement?
Shivashis Padhi
August 16, 2020
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Transcript
What happens behind execution of an import statement? - Shivashis
Padhi
Who am I? - data/software at Grofers - tinker with
earth observation data - past GSoC with the PSF - love FOSS. worked on felicette, MSS
None
xkcd/353
Packages in Python
Packages ‣ directories? not necessarily ‣ special types of modules
‣ the __path__ attribute ‣ What are subpackages?
None
But how can we import a package from a different
directory?
$PATH, and $PYTHONPATH
None
Regular and Namespace packages
Regular packages
Namespace packages
Namespace packages - example
Types of packages supported by default ‣ built-in modules ‣
frozen modules ‣ path entries in $PATH, and $PYTHONPATH
The import system
sys.modules ‣ A dictionary to map module names to modules
which are ‘already loaded’. ‣ Lives in the global namespace of sys
sys.modules
importlib ‣ provide the implementation of the import statement ‣
expose parts of the import system for programmatic usage
Common use-cases of importlib ‣ Programmatically loading a module ‣
Reloading a module in run-time ‣ Base classes for finders and loaders (to be used with import hooks)
Finders and loaders
Finders ‣ find the module ‣ return a spec object
‣ Finder object must have a find_spec method defined.
Finders - examples ‣ locate built-in modules - BuiltinImporter ‣
locate frozen modules - FrozenImporter ‣ import path - imagine $PATH and $PYTHONPATH - PathFinder
Finders - function ‣ If a finder is capable of
handling import, it returns a module spec. ‣ module spec contains module’s metadata i.e path, name, etc. The import machinery uses this spec to load modules later.
find_spec
importing spam.ham
Import hooks and PEP 302
sys.path_hooks sys.meta_path
an example of sys.meta_path and sys.path_hooks
What are import hooks? ‣ Inserting custom finders and loaders
into the import mechanism ‣ Dependency injection?
Loaders After spec object is returned from a finder, loaders
are used to execute the module and store its reference in sys.modules
Tasks of loaders ‣ load from source/byte-code ‣ compile source
‣ execute the module and store reference in sys.modules[spec.name]
example - loading
example - loading
example - loading
ImportError ModuleNotFoundError When no finder can find a module When
loading fails for a package/module
chronological order
Code demonstration of an import hooks’ implementation.
What else can you do with import hooks? ‣ full
control after what happens after import x ‣ importing from ftp, https, authorization checks. ‣ importing from a variety of storage, not just .py/.pyc
How have people used import hooks? ‣ https://github.com/kragniz/json-sempai ‣ https://github.com/nvbn/import_from_github_com
‣ https://github.com/runsascoded/ur
sys.meta_path with virtual environment disabled
sys.meta_path with virtual environment enabled Virtual Environment’s finder
Thank you! https://shivashis.xyz