[Python-ideas] Importing orphaned bytecode files

[Ben Finney]

Eric Smith <eric at trueblade.com> writes:

> Ben Finney wrote:
> > I suggest:
> >
> > * A new attribute ‘sys.import_orphaned_bytecode’. If set ‘True’, the
> >   interpreter follows the current behaviour. If ‘False’, any bytecode
> >   file satisfies an import only if it has a corresponding source file
> >   (where “corresponding” means “this source file would, if compiled,
> >   result in a bytecode file replacing this one”).
>
> I agree with this in principle

Thanks.

> but I don't see how you're going to implement it. In order to actually
> check this condition, aren't you going to have to compile the source
> code anyway? If so, just skip the bytecode file. Although I guess you
> could store a hash of the source in the compiled file, or other
> similar optimizations.

You seem to be seeing something I was careful not to write. The check
is:

   this source file would, if compiled, result in a bytecode file
   replacing this one

Nowhere there is there anything about the resulting bytecode files being
equivalent. I'm limiting the check only to whether the resulting
bytecode file would *replace* the existing bytecode file.

This doesn't require knowing anything at all about the contents of the
current bytecode file; indeed, my intention was to phrase it so that
it's checked before bothering to open the existing bytecode file.

Is there a better term for this? I'm not well-versed enough in the
Python import internals to know.

-- 
 \       “Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion |
  `\              is answers that may never be questioned.” —anonymous |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney