\section{\module{imp} ---
         Access the \keyword{import} internals}

\declaremodule{builtin}{imp}
\modulesynopsis{Access the implementation of the \keyword{import} statement.}


This\stindex{import} module provides an interface to the mechanisms
used to implement the \keyword{import} statement.  It defines the
following constants and functions:


\begin{funcdesc}{get_magic}{}
\indexii{file}{byte-code}
Return the magic string value used to recognize byte-compiled code
files (\file{.pyc} files).  (This value may be different for each
Python version.)
\end{funcdesc}

\begin{funcdesc}{get_suffixes}{}
Return a list of triples, each describing a particular type of module.
Each triple has the form \code{(\var{suffix}, \var{mode},
\var{type})}, where \var{suffix} is a string to be appended to the
module name to form the filename to search for, \var{mode} is the mode
string to pass to the built-in \function{open()} function to open the
file (this can be \code{'r'} for text files or \code{'rb'} for binary
files), and \var{type} is the file type, which has one of the values
\constant{PY_SOURCE}, \constant{PY_COMPILED}, or
\constant{C_EXTENSION}, described below.
\end{funcdesc}

\begin{funcdesc}{find_module}{name\optional{, path}}
Try to find the module \var{name} on the search path \var{path}.  If
\var{path} is a list of directory names, each directory is searched
for files with any of the suffixes returned by \function{get_suffixes()}
above.  Invalid names in the list are silently ignored (but all list
items must be strings).  If \var{path} is omitted or \code{None}, the
list of directory names given by \code{sys.path} is searched, but
first it searches a few special places: it tries to find a built-in
module with the given name (\constant{C_BUILTIN}), then a frozen module
(\constant{PY_FROZEN}), and on some systems some other places are looked
in as well (on the Mac, it looks for a resource (\constant{PY_RESOURCE});
on Windows, it looks in the registry which may point to a specific
file).

If search is successful, the return value is a triple
\code{(\var{file}, \var{pathname}, \var{description})} where
\var{file} is an open file object positioned at the beginning,
\var{pathname} is the pathname of the
file found, and \var{description} is a triple as contained in the list
returned by \function{get_suffixes()} describing the kind of module found.
If the module does not live in a file, the returned \var{file} is
\code{None}, \var{filename} is the empty string, and the
\var{description} tuple contains empty strings for its suffix and
mode; the module type is as indicate in parentheses above.  If the
search is unsuccessful, \exception{ImportError} is raised.  Other
exceptions indicate problems with the arguments or environment.

This function does not handle hierarchical module names (names
containing dots).  In order to find \var{P}.\var{M}, that is, submodule
\var{M} of package \var{P}, use \function{find_module()} and
\function{load_module()} to find and load package \var{P}, and then use
\function{find_module()} with the \var{path} argument set to
\code{\var{P}.__path__}.  When \var{P} itself has a dotted name, apply
this recipe recursively.
\end{funcdesc}

\begin{funcdesc}{load_module}{name, file, filename, description}
Load a module that was previously found by \function{find_module()} (or by
an otherwise conducted search yielding compatible results).  This
function does more than importing the module: if the module was
already imported, it is equivalent to a
\function{reload()}\bifuncindex{reload}!  The \var{name} argument
indicates the full module name (including the package name, if this is
a submodule of a package).  The \var{file} argument is an open file,
and \var{filename} is the corresponding file name; these can be
\code{None} and \code{''}, respectively, when the module is not being
loaded from a file.  The \var{description} argument is a tuple, as
would be returned by \function{get_suffixes()}, describing what kind
of module must be loaded.

If the load is successful, the return value is the module object;
otherwise, an exception (usually \exception{ImportError}) is raised.

\strong{Important:} the caller is responsible for closing the
\var{file} argument, if it was not \code{None}, even when an exception
is raised.  This is best done using a \keyword{try}
... \keyword{finally} statement.
\end{funcdesc}

\begin{funcdesc}{new_module}{name}
Return a new empty module object called \var{name}.  This object is
\emph{not} inserted in \code{sys.modules}.
\end{funcdesc}

\begin{funcdesc}{lock_held}{}
Return \code{True} if the import lock is currently held, else \code{False}.
On platforms without threads, always return \code{False}.

On platforms with threads, a thread executing an import holds an internal
lock until the import is complete.
This lock blocks other threads from doing an import until the original
import completes, which in turn prevents other threads from seeing
incomplete module objects constructed by the original thread while in
the process of completing its import (and the imports, if any,
triggered by that).
\end{funcdesc}

\begin{funcdesc}{acquire_lock}{}
Acquires the interpreter's import lock for the current thread.  This lock
should be used by import hooks to ensure thread-safety when importing modules.
On platforms without threads, this function does nothing.
\versionadded{2.3}
\end{funcdesc}

\begin{funcdesc}{release_lock}{}
Release the interpreter's import lock.
On platforms without threads, this function does nothing.
\versionadded{2.3}
\end{funcdesc}

The following constants with integer values, defined in this module,
are used to indicate the search result of \function{find_module()}.

\begin{datadesc}{PY_SOURCE}
The module was found as a source file.
\end{datadesc}

\begin{datadesc}{PY_COMPILED}
The module was found as a compiled code object file.
\end{datadesc}

\begin{datadesc}{C_EXTENSION}
The module was found as dynamically loadable shared library.
\end{datadesc}

\begin{datadesc}{PY_RESOURCE}
The module was found as a Mac OS 9 resource.  This value can only be
returned on a Mac OS 9 or earlier Macintosh.
\end{datadesc}

\begin{datadesc}{PKG_DIRECTORY}
The module was found as a package directory.
\end{datadesc}

\begin{datadesc}{C_BUILTIN}
The module was found as a built-in module.
\end{datadesc}

\begin{datadesc}{PY_FROZEN}
The module was found as a frozen module (see \function{init_frozen()}).
\end{datadesc}

The following constant and functions are obsolete; their functionality
is available through \function{find_module()} or \function{load_module()}.
They are kept around for backward compatibility:

\begin{datadesc}{SEARCH_ERROR}
Unused.
\end{datadesc}

\begin{funcdesc}{init_builtin}{name}
Initialize the built-in module called \var{name} and return its module
object.  If the module was already initialized, it will be initialized
\emph{again}.  A few modules cannot be initialized twice --- attempting
to initialize these again will raise an \exception{ImportError}
exception.  If there is no
built-in module called \var{name}, \code{None} is returned.
\end{funcdesc}

\begin{funcdesc}{init_frozen}{name}
Initialize the frozen module called \var{name} and return its module
object.  If the module was already initialized, it will be initialized
\emph{again}.  If there is no frozen module called \var{name},
\code{None} is returned.  (Frozen modules are modules written in
Python whose compiled byte-code object is incorporated into a
custom-built Python interpreter by Python's \program{freeze} utility.
See \file{Tools/freeze/} for now.)
\end{funcdesc}

\begin{funcdesc}{is_builtin}{name}
Return \code{1} if there is a built-in module called \var{name} which
can be initialized again.  Return \code{-1} if there is a built-in
module called \var{name} which cannot be initialized again (see
\function{init_builtin()}).  Return \code{0} if there is no built-in
module called \var{name}.
\end{funcdesc}

\begin{funcdesc}{is_frozen}{name}
Return \code{True} if there is a frozen module (see
\function{init_frozen()}) called \var{name}, or \code{False} if there is
no such module.
\end{funcdesc}

\begin{funcdesc}{load_compiled}{name, pathname, \optional{file}}
\indexii{file}{byte-code}
Load and initialize a module implemented as a byte-compiled code file
and return its module object.  If the module was already initialized,
it will be initialized \emph{again}.  The \var{name} argument is used
to create or access a module object.  The \var{pathname} argument
points to the byte-compiled code file.  The \var{file}
argument is the byte-compiled code file, open for reading in binary
mode, from the beginning.
It must currently be a real file object, not a
user-defined class emulating a file.
\end{funcdesc}

\begin{funcdesc}{load_dynamic}{name, pathname\optional{, file}}
Load and initialize a module implemented as a dynamically loadable
shared library and return its module object.  If the module was
already initialized, it will be initialized \emph{again}.  Some modules
don't like that and may raise an exception.  The \var{pathname}
argument must point to the shared library.  The \var{name} argument is
used to construct the name of the initialization function: an external
C function called \samp{init\var{name}()} in the shared library is
called.  The optional \var{file} argument is ignored.  (Note: using
shared libraries is highly system dependent, and not all systems
support it.)
\end{funcdesc}

\begin{funcdesc}{load_source}{name, pathname\optional{, file}}
Load and initialize a module implemented as a Python source file and
return its module object.  If the module was already initialized, it
will be initialized \emph{again}.  The \var{name} argument is used to
create or access a module object.  The \var{pathname} argument points
to the source file.  The \var{file} argument is the source
file, open for reading as text, from the beginning.
It must currently be a real file
object, not a user-defined class emulating a file.  Note that if a
properly matching byte-compiled file (with suffix \file{.pyc} or
\file{.pyo}) exists, it will be used instead of parsing the given
source file.
\end{funcdesc}

\begin{classdesc}{NullImporter}{path_string}
The \class{NullImporter} type is a \pep{302} import hook that handles
non-directory path strings by failing to find any modules.  Calling this
type with an existing directory or empty string raises
\exception{ImportError}.  Otherwise, a \class{NullImporter} instance is
returned.

Python adds instances of this type to \code{sys.path_importer_cache} for
any path entries that are not directories and are not handled by any other
path hooks on \code{sys.path_hooks}.  Instances have only one method:

\begin{methoddesc}{find_module}{fullname \optional{, path}}
This method always returns \code{None}, indicating that the requested
module could not be found.
\end{methoddesc}

\versionadded{2.5}
\end{classdesc}

\subsection{Examples}
\label{examples-imp}

The following function emulates what was the standard import statement
up to Python 1.4 (no hierarchical module names).  (This
\emph{implementation} wouldn't work in that version, since
\function{find_module()} has been extended and
\function{load_module()} has been added in 1.4.)

\begin{verbatim}
import imp
import sys

def __import__(name, globals=None, locals=None, fromlist=None):
    # Fast path: see if the module has already been imported.
    try:
        return sys.modules[name]
    except KeyError:
        pass

    # If any of the following calls raises an exception,
    # there's a problem we can't handle -- let the caller handle it.

    fp, pathname, description = imp.find_module(name)

    try:
        return imp.load_module(name, fp, pathname, description)
    finally:
        # Since we may exit via an exception, close fp explicitly.
        if fp:
            fp.close()
\end{verbatim}

A more complete example that implements hierarchical module names and
includes a \function{reload()}\bifuncindex{reload} function can be
found in the module \module{knee}\refmodindex{knee}.  The
\module{knee} module can be found in \file{Demo/imputil/} in the
Python source distribution.