This module aims to provide a unified, object-oriented view of Python's runtime hierarchy.

Python is a very dynamic language with wide variety of introspection utilities. However, these utilities can be hard to use, because there is no consistent API. The introspection API in python is made up of attributes (__name__, __module__, func_name, etc) on instances, modules, classes and functions which vary between those four types, utility modules such as 'inspect' which provide some functionality, the 'imp' module, the "compiler" module, the semantics of PEP 302 support, and setuptools, among other things.

At the top, you have "PythonPath", an abstract representation of sys.path which includes methods to locate top-level modules, with or without loading them. The top-level exposed functions in this module for accessing the system path are "walkModules", "iterModules", and "getModule".

From most to least specific, here are the objects provided:

                 PythonPath  # sys.path
                     |
                     v
                 PathEntry   # one entry on sys.path: an importer
                     |
                     v
                PythonModule # a module or package that can be loaded
                     |
                     v
                PythonAttribute # an attribute of a module (function or class)
                     |
                     v
                PythonAttribute # an attribute of a function or class
                     |
                     v
                    ...

Here's an example of idiomatic usage: this is what you would do to list all of the modules outside the standard library's python-files directory:

   import os
   stdlibdir = os.path.dirname(os.__file__)

   from twisted.python.modules import iterModules

   for modinfo in iterModules():
       if (modinfo.pathEntry.filePath.path != stdlibdir
           and not modinfo.isPackage()):
           print('unpackaged: %s: %s' % (
               modinfo.name, modinfo.filePath.path))
Variable theSystemPath The very top of the Python object space.
Class PythonAttribute I represent a function, class, or other object that is present.
Class PythonModule Representation of a module which could be imported from sys.path.
Class PathEntry I am a proxy for a single entry on sys.path.
Interface IPathImportMapper This is an internal interface, used to map importers to factories for FilePath-like objects.
Class PythonPath I represent the very top of the Python object-space, the module list in sys.path and the modules list in sys.modules.
Function walkModules Deeply iterate all modules on the global python path.
Function iterModules Iterate all modules and top-level packages on the global Python path, but do not descend into packages.
Function getModule Retrieve a module from the system path.
Function _isPythonIdentifier cheezy fake test for proper identifier-ness.
Function _isPackagePath Undocumented
Class _ModuleIteratorHelper This mixin provides common behavior between python module and path entries, since the mechanism for searching sys.path and __path__ attributes is remarkably similar.
Class _DefaultMapImpl Wrapper for the default importer, i.e. None.
Class _ZipMapImpl IPathImportMapper implementation for zipimport.ZipImporter.
Function _defaultSysPathFactory Provide the default behavior of PythonPath's sys.path factory, which is to return the current value of sys.path.
theSystemPath =
The very top of the Python object space.
def _isPythonIdentifier(string): (source)

cheezy fake test for proper identifier-ness.

Parametersstringa str which might or might not be a valid python identifier.
ReturnsTrue or False
def _isPackagePath(fpath): (source)
Undocumented
def _defaultSysPathFactory(): (source)

Provide the default behavior of PythonPath's sys.path factory, which is to return the current value of sys.path.

Returnssys.path
def walkModules(importPackages=False): (source)

Deeply iterate all modules on the global python path.

ParametersimportPackagesImport packages as they are seen.
def iterModules(): (source)

Iterate all modules and top-level packages on the global Python path, but do not descend into packages.

ParametersimportPackagesImport packages as they are seen.
def getModule(moduleName): (source)

Retrieve a module from the system path.

API Documentation for Twisted, generated by pydoctor at 2018-10-15 19:29:43.