In Python, how do you change an instantiated object after a reload?

Question

Let\'s say you have an object that was instantiated from a class inside a module. Now, you reload that module. The next thing you\'d like to do is make that reload affect that c

Answer 1

My approach to this is the following:

1. Look through all imported modules and reload only those with a new .py file (as compared to the existing .pyc file)
2. For every function and class method that is reloaded, set old_function.__code__ = new_function.__code__.
3. For every reloaded class, use gc.get_referrers to list instances of the class and set their __class__ attribute to the new version.

Advantages to this approach are:

• Usually no need to reload modules in any particular order
• Usually only need to reload the modules with changed code and no more
• Don't need to modify classes to keep track of their instances

You can read about the technique (and its limitations) here: http://luke-campagnola.blogspot.com/2010/12/easy-automated-reloading-in-python.html

And you can download the code here: http://luke.campagnola.me/code/downloads/reload.py