[Python-Dev] __import__ problems

[Nick Coghlan]

Mart Somermaa wrote:
>>> The variant proposed by Hrvoje Niksic:
>>>
>>>  >>> __import__(modname)
>>>  >>> mod = sys.modules[modname]
>>>
>>> looks more appealing, but comes with the drawback that sys has to be
>>> imported for that purpose only.
>>
>> That is not a real drawback, as "sys" will certainly be present in the
>> system, so the "importing" boils down to a dict lookup and a variable
>> assignment.
> 
> I meant that you have to
> 
>>>> import sys
> 
> only to access sys.modules (i.e. importing sys may not be necessary
> otherwise).

As Hrvoje has pointed out, 'sys' is part of the internal interpreter
machinery - it's there as soon as the interpreter starts. The import
call for it just grabs it out of the module cache and creates a
reference to it in the current namespace.

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia
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