Python modules: how to keep private symbol table private?

Question

I have a module in which I import other modules (typically sys or os), and when I import the module with

import mymodule

if I do something like this

dir(mymodule)

I get not only the submodules of the module, but also os et al.

['__builtins__', '__doc__', '__file__', '__name__', '__package__', 'os', 'sys', 'submodule']

Is there a way to avoid to have the modules imported inside my module to show up in the symbol table of the module? Is it possible to keep it private?

Answer 1

Well, you can delete the module from the namespace using del:

import os

# ... all other code here

del os

After that it won't be visible anymore when importing.

However, this won't work when the modules are actually used...