Why are my jython "*$py.class" files not being updated with code changes after I moved them to a different package?

Question

I originally had all of my modules in one package. I recently created a sub-package in the original package, and moved a few modules into that. My src folder, and the 2 package folders, are all in my PYTHONPATH.

Since I relocated those modules, changes that I'm making to their .py files don't seem to be making their way into the generated *$py.class files, which I believe are ultimately what get run, based on what print __FILE__ spits out.

The .class files are located in the top-level package's directory, which I believe is because the first place they are imported from is within a module that's in that package. So I think they're in the right place.

Moving the modules back to the top-level package does make the problem go away, but being forced to have all modules in one package is hardly a solution. Is there something I have to do to 'register' a module as part of a package, other than having it in a folder with an __init__.py?

Note: The rest of this question is just the symptoms that have caused me to conclude that the .class files are not being updated when I change the .py files. You can probably skip it if you're a tl;dr kind of person :P

I put a bunch of whitespace at the start of a function, and when I step through it, the cursor follows where the code used to be.

Here is the code the IDE shows me:

and here are the local vars (note that self has nothing bound):

After I step a couple of lines, here is the code (note the cursor position): and the locals:

Notice that now self has had id and updatePeriod bound, so those first 2 lines of code after the whitespace have clearly been executed.

If I remove the .py file entirely (stick it on the desktop or something), then obviously the IDE can't find it, so I can't step through it, but the program runs based on what code used to be (there are some obvious changes that I can tell are not in effect).

Finally, the modification dates on the relevant *$py.class files are about 4.5 hours old, despite all this fiddling I've been doing with the recent .py files over the last hour or 2.

Answer 1

Compiled Python files don't get automatically removed, when .py gets removed. Since they are in $PYTHONPATH before your sub-packages, they are executed, and since there is no .py corresponding to them, they will get used and they will never be updated. The only solution is to manually remove them.

PyDev apparently adds to confusion, by actually interpreting the source.

Answer 2

I think there are 2 issues here:

• When you move the file, the $py.class is not regenerated:

This is probably because you're running the file as the main entry... If I remember properly, the $py.class are only generated when the file gets imported (i.e.: not for your __main__ module) and only if the code has actually been changed (I'm not sure how Jython decides it was changed -- probably the time of the file, but I may be wrong here).

The best solution for that would be deleting the $py.class when you move a file and its corresponding $py.class (like moving a folder), that way you can be 100% sure Jython will never pick it up.

PyDev can help you there: select a folder in the PyDev Package Explorer > PyDev > Remove *.pyc, *.pyo and *$py.class Files.

• $py.class files without the corresponding .py file

PyDev actually handles this properly for .pyc files (i.e.: deletes the .pyc when the .py file is no longer available). I'm changing PyDev to handle that for $py.class files too (so, if you get the nightly within 3-4 hours, it should be working -- see: http://pydev.org/download.html for instructions to get it -- until then, you can do the remove manually as described above).