Generic metaclass to keep track of subclasses?

Question

I\'m trying to write a generic metaclass to track subclasses

Since I want this to be generic, I didn\'t want to hardcode any class name within this metaclass, therefore

Answer 1

Here's something I've been playing around with (that works):

def sublass_registry():
    ''' Create a metaclass to register subclasses '''

    class SublassRegistryMeta(type):
        def __init__(cls, name, bases, classdict):
            if classdict.get('__metaclass__') is SublassRegistryMeta:
                SublassRegistryMeta.lineage = [cls] # put root class at head of a list
            else:
                # sublclasses won't have __metaclass__ explicitly set to this class
                # we know they're subclassees because this ctor is being called for them
                SublassRegistryMeta.lineage.append(cls) # add subclass to list
            type.__init__(cls, name, bases, classdict)

    return SublassRegistryMeta

def subclasses(cls):
    ''' Return a list containing base and subclasses '''

    try:
        if cls.__metaclass__.lineage[0] is cls: # only valid for a root class
            return cls.__metaclass__.lineage
    except AttributeError:
        pass
    return None

class Car(object): # root class
    __metaclass__ = sublass_registry()

class Audi(Car): # inherits __metaclass__
    pass

class Ford(Car): # inherits __metaclass__
    pass

class Audi2(Audi): # sub-subclass also inherits __metaclass__
    pass

print subclasses(Car)
# [, , , ]
print subclasses(Audi)
# None