How can a function know what module it's in?

[Joe Strout]

I've been using docstring to exercise each of my modules, with code
like this:

def _test():
import doctest
doctest.testmod()

if __name__ == "__main__":
_test()


This works great when I execute each module by itself. However, if I
want to call mymodule._test() from somewhere else, it doesn't work,
because doctest.testmod() tests the __main__ module instead of
mymodule. And of course changing the call to this doesn't work either:

doctest.testmod(mymodule)

This actually works fine if I'm importing the module (with the
standard name) somewhere else, but not when I'm executing it directly,
or (I would guess) if the module is imported under a different name.

What I want to express is "doctest THIS module, right here, the one
this code is in!" But I can't find a clean way to do that.

I noticed that a function object has a __module__ attribute, that is a
reference to the module the function is in. But that just pushes the
problem back a step: how can a function get a reference to itself?

I'm sure there is a magic identifier somewhere that lets a code get a
reference to its own module, but I haven't been able to find it. Can
someone share a clue?

Thanks,
- Joe

 

[Arnaud Delobelle]

I've been using docstring to exercise each of my modules, with code
like this:

def _test():
import doctest
doctest.testmod()

if __name__ == "__main__":
_test()


This works great when I execute each module by itself. However, if I
want to call mymodule._test() from somewhere else, it doesn't work,
because doctest.testmod() tests the __main__ module instead of
mymodule. And of course changing the call to this doesn't work
either:

doctest.testmod(mymodule)

This actually works fine if I'm importing the module (with the
standard name) somewhere else, but not when I'm executing it directly,
or (I would guess) if the module is imported under a different name.

What I want to express is "doctest THIS module, right here, the one
this code is in!" But I can't find a clean way to do that.

I noticed that a function object has a __module__ attribute, that is a
reference to the module the function is in. But that just pushes the
problem back a step: how can a function get a reference to itself?

I'm sure there is a magic identifier somewhere that lets a code get a
reference to its own module, but I haven't been able to find it. Can
someone share a clue?

There isn't. There was a proposal for one but it was rejected.
Nevertheless I think you can achieve this very easily.

In mymodule.py
--------------

def _test():
import doctest
import mymodule
doctest.testmod(mymodule)


That's it!