How to get a reference to current module’s attributes in Python

What I’m trying to do would look like this in the command line:

>>> import mymodule
>>> names = dir(mymodule)

How can I get a reference to all the names defined in mymodule from within mymodule itself?

Something like this:

# mymodule.py
names = dir(__thismodule__)

Answers:

Thank you for visiting the Q&A section on Magenaut. Please note that all the answers may not help you solve the issue immediately. So please treat them as advisements. If you found the post helpful (or not), leave a comment & I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Method 1

As previously mentioned, globals gives you a dictionary as opposed to dir() which gives you a list of the names defined in the module. The way I typically see this done is like this:

import sys
dir(sys.modules[__name__])

Method 2

Just use globals()

globals() — Return a dictionary
representing the current global symbol
table. This is always the dictionary
of the current module (inside a
function or method, this is the module
where it is defined, not the module
from which it is called).

http://docs.python.org/library/functions.html#globals

Method 3

It might be late to answer, but I didn’t found the correct answer for myself.
The most closest and precise solution (faster than inspect.stack()) in the python 3.7.x:

# search for first module in the stack
stack_frame = inspect.currentframe()
while stack_frame:
  print('***', stack_frame.f_code.co_name, stack_frame.f_code.co_filename, stack_frame.f_lineno)
  if stack_frame.f_code.co_name == '<module>':
    if stack_frame.f_code.co_filename != '<stdin>':
      caller_module = inspect.getmodule(stack_frame)
    else:
      # piped or interactive import
      caller_module = sys.modules['__main__']
    if not caller_module is None:
      #... do something here ...
    break
  stack_frame = stack_frame.f_back

Pros:

• Preciser than globals() method.
• Does not depend on the stack intermediate frames, which can be added for example, via hooking or by the 3dparty tools like pytest:

*** foo ... ..
*** boo ... ..
*** runtest c:pythonx8637libsite-packagesxonshpytest_plugin.py 58
*** pytest_runtest_call c:pythonx8637libsite-packages_pytestrunner.py 125
*** _multicall c:pythonx8637libsite-packagespluggycallers.py 187
*** <lambda> c:pythonx8637libsite-packagespluggymanager.py 86
*** _hookexec c:pythonx8637libsite-packagespluggymanager.py 92
*** __call__ c:pythonx8637libsite-packagespluggyhooks.py 286
*** <lambda> c:pythonx8637libsite-packages_pytestrunner.py 201
*** from_call c:pythonx8637libsite-packages_pytestrunner.py 229
*** call_runtest_hook c:pythonx8637libsite-packages_pytestrunner.py 201
*** call_and_report c:pythonx8637libsite-packages_pytestrunner.py 176
*** runtestprotocol c:pythonx8637libsite-packages_pytestrunner.py 95
*** pytest_runtest_protocol c:pythonx8637libsite-packages_pytestrunner.py 80
*** _multicall c:pythonx8637libsite-packagespluggycallers.py 187
*** <lambda> c:pythonx8637libsite-packagespluggymanager.py 86
*** _hookexec c:pythonx8637libsite-packagespluggymanager.py 92
*** __call__ c:pythonx8637libsite-packagespluggyhooks.py 286
*** pytest_runtestloop c:pythonx8637libsite-packages_pytestmain.py 258
*** _multicall c:pythonx8637libsite-packagespluggycallers.py 187
*** <lambda> c:pythonx8637libsite-packagespluggymanager.py 86
*** _hookexec c:pythonx8637libsite-packagespluggymanager.py 92
*** __call__ c:pythonx8637libsite-packagespluggyhooks.py 286
*** _main c:pythonx8637libsite-packages_pytestmain.py 237
*** wrap_session c:pythonx8637libsite-packages_pytestmain.py 193
*** pytest_cmdline_main c:pythonx8637libsite-packages_pytestmain.py 230
*** _multicall c:pythonx8637libsite-packagespluggycallers.py 187
*** <lambda> c:pythonx8637libsite-packagespluggymanager.py 86
*** _hookexec c:pythonx8637libsite-packagespluggymanager.py 92
*** __call__ c:pythonx8637libsite-packagespluggyhooks.py 286
*** main c:pythonx8637libsite-packages_pytestconfig__init__.py 90
*** <module> c:Pythonx8637Scriptspytest.exe__main__.py 7

• Can handle python piped or interactive session.

Cons:

• A kind of much precise and can return modules registered in an executable like for the pytest.exe which might not what you want.
• inspect.getmodule still may return None on valid modules depending on hooking

I have an extension to the python:
How to import a module given the full path?

The extension having wrapper functions for that case:

def tkl_get_stack_frame_module_by_offset(skip_stack_frames = 0, use_last_frame_on_out_of_stack = False):
  ...

def tkl_get_stack_frame_module_by_name(name = '<module>'):
  ...

You have to just initialize the extension properly:

# portable import to the global space
sys.path.append(<path-to-tacklelib-module-directory>)
import tacklelib as tkl

tkl.tkl_init(tkl, global_config = {'log_import_module':os.environ.get('TACKLELIB_LOG_IMPORT_MODULE')})

# cleanup
del tkl # must be instead of `tkl = None`, otherwise the variable would be still persist
sys.path.pop()

# use `tkl_*` functions directly from here ...

All methods was sourced from stackoverflow.com or stackexchange.com, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5, cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0