module confusion

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:12:33 -0500, Robert Kern wrote:

> This is somewhat odd, because most modules aren't exposed that way. They
> are either in their own file and accessed by importing them directly, or
> they are inside a package.

Any time you say:

import parrot


in one of your modules, you export parrot to anything that imports your 
module. (Unless you take specific steps to prevent it, for instance with 
del parrot.)


Just to pick some random examples:

>>> import ConfigParser, base64, fileinput
>>> ConfigParser.re
<module 're' from '/usr/lib/python2.5/re.pyc'>
>>> base64.struct
<module 'struct' from '/usr/lib/python2.5/struct.pyc'>
>>> base64.binascii
<module 'binascii' from '/usr/lib/python2.5/lib-dynload/binascii.so'>
>>> fileinput.sys
<module 'sys' (built-in)>
>>> fileinput.os
<module 'os' from '/usr/lib/python2.5/os.pyc'>


It's quite common.


-- 
Steven.