Trace Python imports

Question

My Python library just changed it's main module name from foo.bar to foobar. For backward compat, foo.bar still exists, but importing it raises a few warnings. Now, it seems some example program still imports from the old module, but not directly.

I'd like to find the erroneous import statement. Is there any tool that allows me to trace imports and find the culprit without wading through all of the code?

Answer 1

Start the python interpreter with -v:

$ python -v -m /usr/lib/python2.6/timeit.py # installing zipimport hook import zipimport # builtin # installed zipimport hook # /usr/lib/python2.6/site.pyc matches /usr/lib/python2.6/site.py import site # precompiled from /usr/lib/python2.6/site.pyc # /usr/lib/python2.6/os.pyc matches /usr/lib/python2.6/os.py import os # precompiled from /usr/lib/python2.6/os.pyc import errno # builtin import posix # builtin # /usr/lib/python2.6/posixpath.pyc matches /usr/lib/python2.6/posixpath.py import posixpath # precompiled from /usr/lib/python2.6/posixpath.pyc # /usr/lib/python2.6/stat.pyc matches /usr/lib/python2.6/stat.py import stat # precompiled from /usr/lib/python2.6/stat.pyc # /usr/lib/python2.6/genericpath.pyc matches /usr/lib/python2.6/genericpath.py import genericpath # precompiled from /usr/lib/python2.6/genericpath.pyc # /usr/lib/python2.6/warnings.pyc matches /usr/lib/python2.6/warnings.py import warnings # precompiled from /usr/lib/python2.6/warnings.pyc # /usr/lib/python2.6/linecache.pyc matches /usr/lib/python2.6/linecache.py import linecache # precompiled from /usr/lib/python2.6/linecache.pyc # /usr/lib/python2.6/types.pyc matches /usr/lib/python2.6/types.py import types # precompiled from /usr/lib/python2.6/types.pyc # /usr/lib/python2.6/UserDict.pyc matches /usr/lib/python2.6/UserDict.py ... 

Then just grep for your old module.