How do I unload (reload) a Python module?

Question

I have a long-running Python server and would like to be able to upgrade a service without restarting the server. What\'s the best way do do this?

if foo.py          


        

Answer 1

Edit (Answer V2)

The solution from before is good for just getting the reset information, but it will not change all the references (more than reload but less then required). To actually set all the references as well, I had to go into the garbage collector, and rewrite the references there. Now it works like a charm!

Note that this will not work if the GC is turned off, or if reloading data that's not monitored by the GC. If you don't want to mess with the GC, the original answer might be enough for you.

New code:

import importlib
import inspect
import gc
from weakref import ref


def reset_module(module, inner_modules_also=True):
    """
    This function is a stronger form of importlib's `reload` function. What it does, is that aside from reloading a
    module, it goes to the old instance of the module, and sets all the (not read-only) attributes, functions and classes
    to be the reloaded-module's
    :param module: The module to reload (module reference, not the name)
    :param inner_modules_also: Whether to treat ths module as a package as well, and reload all the modules within it.
    """

    # For the case when the module is actually a package
    if inner_modules_also:
        submods = {submod for _, submod in inspect.getmembers(module)
                   if (type(submod).__name__ == 'module') and (submod.__package__.startswith(module.__name__))}
        for submod in submods:
            reset_module(submod, True)

    # First, log all the references before reloading (because some references may be changed by the reload operation).
    module_tree = _get_tree_references_to_reset_recursively(module, module.__name__)

    new_module = importlib.reload(module)
    _reset_item_recursively(module, module_tree, new_module)


def _update_referrers(item, new_item):
    refs = gc.get_referrers(item)

    weak_ref_item = ref(item)
    for coll in refs:
        if type(coll) == dict:
            enumerator = coll.keys()
        elif type(coll) == list:
            enumerator = range(len(coll))
        else:
            continue

        for key in enumerator:

            if weak_ref_item() is None:
                # No refs are left in the GC
                return

            if coll[key] is weak_ref_item():
                coll[key] = new_item

def _get_tree_references_to_reset_recursively(item, module_name, grayed_out_item_ids = None):
    if grayed_out_item_ids is None:
        grayed_out_item_ids = set()

    item_tree = dict()
    attr_names = set(dir(item)) - _readonly_attrs
    for sub_item_name in attr_names:

        sub_item = getattr(item, sub_item_name)
        item_tree[sub_item_name] = [sub_item, None]

        try:
            # Will work for classes and functions defined in that module.
            mod_name = sub_item.__module__
        except AttributeError:
            mod_name = None

        # If this item was defined within this module, deep-reset
        if (mod_name is None) or (mod_name != module_name) or (id(sub_item) in grayed_out_item_ids) \
                or isinstance(sub_item, EnumMeta):
            continue

        grayed_out_item_ids.add(id(sub_item))
        item_tree[sub_item_name][1] = \
            _get_tree_references_to_reset_recursively(sub_item, module_name, grayed_out_item_ids)

    return item_tree


def _reset_item_recursively(item, item_subtree, new_item):

    # Set children first so we don't lose the current references.
    if item_subtree is not None:
        for sub_item_name, (sub_item, sub_item_tree) in item_subtree.items():

            try:
                new_sub_item = getattr(new_item, sub_item_name)
            except AttributeError:
                # The item doesn't exist in the reloaded module. Ignore.
                continue

            try:
                # Set the item
                _reset_item_recursively(sub_item, sub_item_tree, new_sub_item)
            except Exception as ex:
                pass

    _update_referrers(item, new_item)

Original Answer

As written in @bobince's answer, if there's already a reference to that module in another module (especially if it was imported with the as keyword like import numpy as np), that instance will not be overwritten.

This proved quite problematic to me when applying tests that required a "clean-slate" state of the configuration modules, so I've written a function named reset_module that uses importlib's reload function and recursively overwrites all the declared module's attributes. It has been tested with Python version 3.6.

import importlib
import inspect
from enum import EnumMeta

_readonly_attrs = {'__annotations__', '__call__', '__class__', '__closure__', '__code__', '__defaults__', '__delattr__',
               '__dict__', '__dir__', '__doc__', '__eq__', '__format__', '__func__', '__ge__', '__get__',
               '__getattribute__', '__globals__', '__gt__', '__hash__', '__init__', '__init_subclass__',
               '__kwdefaults__', '__le__', '__lt__', '__module__', '__name__', '__ne__', '__new__', '__qualname__',
               '__reduce__', '__reduce_ex__', '__repr__', '__self__', '__setattr__', '__sizeof__', '__str__',
               '__subclasshook__', '__weakref__', '__members__', '__mro__', '__itemsize__', '__isabstractmethod__',
               '__basicsize__', '__base__'}


def reset_module(module, inner_modules_also=True):
    """
    This function is a stronger form of importlib's `reload` function. What it does, is that aside from reloading a
    module, it goes to the old instance of the module, and sets all the (not read-only) attributes, functions and classes
    to be the reloaded-module's
    :param module: The module to reload (module reference, not the name)
    :param inner_modules_also: Whether to treat ths module as a package as well, and reload all the modules within it.
    """

    new_module = importlib.reload(module)

    reset_items = set()

    # For the case when the module is actually a package
    if inner_modules_also:
        submods = {submod for _, submod in inspect.getmembers(module)
                   if (type(submod).__name__ == 'module') and (submod.__package__.startswith(module.__name__))}
        for submod in submods:
            reset_module(submod, True)

    _reset_item_recursively(module, new_module, module.__name__, reset_items)


def _reset_item_recursively(item, new_item, module_name, reset_items=None):
    if reset_items is None:
        reset_items = set()

    attr_names = set(dir(item)) - _readonly_attrs

    for sitem_name in attr_names:

        sitem = getattr(item, sitem_name)
        new_sitem = getattr(new_item, sitem_name)

        try:
            # Set the item
            setattr(item, sitem_name, new_sitem)

            try:
                # Will work for classes and functions defined in that module.
                mod_name = sitem.__module__
            except AttributeError:
                mod_name = None

            # If this item was defined within this module, deep-reset
            if (mod_name is None) or (mod_name != module_name) or (id(sitem) in reset_items) \
                    or isinstance(sitem, EnumMeta):  # Deal with enums
                continue

            reset_items.add(id(sitem))
            _reset_item_recursively(sitem, new_sitem, module_name, reset_items)
        except Exception as ex:
            raise Exception(sitem_name) from ex

Note: Use with care! Using these on non-peripheral modules (modules that define externally-used classes, for example) might lead to internal problems in Python (such as pickling/un-pickling issues).