pydev: undefined variable error when importing compiled modules

Question

I want to switch my python-IDE from idle to pydev (eclipse). I am using a couple of modules which I have as compiled bytecode (*.pyc) only. In idle that was never a problem and it even offers code completion for those compiled modules. But pydev gives me a lot of "undefined variable" errors - however the code is interpreted correctly.

Is there a way pydev can handle bytecode modules the way idle does? Perhaps without decompiling the files?

Answer 1

Try adding the modules as forced builtins.

To do that, go into Settings → PyDev → Interpreter - (Python/Jython/IronPython as approriate), select the interpeter you're using, and add it to the list on the Forced Builtins tab (look here for more details).

(Note that you may or may not have to add multiple entries for subpackages and modules; for example to get Fabric working properly one needs to add both fabric and fabric.api)

That makes PyDev load those modules into an interpreter to get code-completion and error checking data, rather than just analysing source code.

I've not tried it for .pyc files, but it works for other things like importing something that's generated dynamically by a script's __init__.py or something (ie fabric) so it might work for you.

(see also this FAQ and that one on the PyDev site)