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<h1>Python Enhancement Proposals</h1>
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<h1 class="page-title">PEP 726 Module <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__setattr__</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__delattr__</span></code></h1>
<dl class="rfc2822 field-list simple">
<dt class="field-odd">Author<span class="colon">:</span></dt>
<dd class="field-odd">Sergey B Kirpichev &lt;skirpichev&#32;&#97;t&#32;gmail.com&gt;</dd>
<dt class="field-even">Sponsor<span class="colon">:</span></dt>
<dd class="field-even">Adam Turner &lt;python&#32;&#97;t&#32;quite.org.uk&gt;</dd>
<dt class="field-odd">Discussions-To<span class="colon">:</span></dt>
<dd class="field-odd"><a class="reference external" href="https://discuss.python.org/t/32640/">Discourse thread</a></dd>
<dt class="field-even">Status<span class="colon">:</span></dt>
<dd class="field-even"><abbr title="Formally declined and will not be accepted">Rejected</abbr></dd>
<dt class="field-odd">Type<span class="colon">:</span></dt>
<dd class="field-odd"><abbr title="Normative PEP with a new feature for Python, implementation change for CPython or interoperability standard for the ecosystem">Standards Track</abbr></dd>
<dt class="field-even">Created<span class="colon">:</span></dt>
<dd class="field-even">24-Aug-2023</dd>
<dt class="field-odd">Python-Version<span class="colon">:</span></dt>
<dd class="field-odd">3.13</dd>
<dt class="field-even">Post-History<span class="colon">:</span></dt>
<dd class="field-even"><a class="reference external" href="https://discuss.python.org/t/25506/" title="Discourse thread">06-Apr-2023</a>,
<a class="reference external" href="https://discuss.python.org/t/32640/" title="Discourse thread">31-Aug-2023</a></dd>
<dt class="field-odd">Resolution<span class="colon">:</span></dt>
<dd class="field-odd"><a class="reference external" href="https://discuss.python.org/t/32640/32">Discourse message</a></dd>
</dl>
<hr class="docutils" />
<section id="contents">
<details><summary>Table of Contents</summary><ul class="simple">
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#abstract">Abstract</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#motivation">Motivation</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#existing-options">Existing Options</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#specification">Specification</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#how-to-teach-this">How to Teach This</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#reference-implementation">Reference Implementation</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#backwards-compatibility">Backwards compatibility</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#discussion">Discussion</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#footnotes">Footnotes</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#copyright">Copyright</a></li>
</ul>
</details></section>
<section id="abstract">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#abstract" role="doc-backlink">Abstract</a></h2>
<p>This PEP proposes supporting user-defined <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__setattr__</span></code>
and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__delattr__</span></code> methods on modules to extend customization
of module attribute access beyond <a class="pep reference internal" href="../pep-0562/" title="PEP 562 Module __getattr__ and __dir__">PEP 562</a>.</p>
</section>
<section id="motivation">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#motivation" role="doc-backlink">Motivation</a></h2>
<p>There are several potential uses of a module <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__setattr__</span></code>:</p>
<ol class="arabic simple">
<li>To prevent setting an attribute at all (i.e. make it read-only)</li>
<li>To validate the value to be assigned</li>
<li>To intercept setting an attribute and update some other state</li>
</ol>
<p>Proper support for read-only attributes would also require adding the
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__delattr__</span></code> function to prevent their deletion.</p>
<p>It would be convenient to directly support such customization, by recognizing
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__setattr__</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__delattr__</span></code> methods defined in a module that would act
like normal <a class="reference external" href="https://docs.python.org/3/reference/datamodel.html#object.__setattr__" title="(in Python v3.13)"><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">object.__setattr__()</span></code></a> and
<a class="reference external" href="https://docs.python.org/3/reference/datamodel.html#object.__delattr__" title="(in Python v3.13)"><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">object.__delattr__()</span></code></a> methods, except that they will be defined
on module <em>instances</em>. Together with existing <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__getattr__</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__dir__</span></code>
methods this will streamline all variants of customizing module attribute access.</p>
<p>For example</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="c1"># mplib.py</span>
<span class="n">CONSTANT</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mf">3.14</span>
<span class="n">prec</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">53</span>
<span class="n">dps</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">15</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">dps_to_prec</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">n</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="w"> </span><span class="sd">&quot;&quot;&quot;Return the number of bits required to represent n decimals accurately.&quot;&quot;&quot;</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="nb">max</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="nb">int</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">round</span><span class="p">((</span><span class="nb">int</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">n</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">+</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">*</span><span class="mf">3.3219280948873626</span><span class="p">)))</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">prec_to_dps</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">n</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="w"> </span><span class="sd">&quot;&quot;&quot;Return the number of accurate decimals that can be represented with n bits.&quot;&quot;&quot;</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="nb">max</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="nb">int</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">round</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">int</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">n</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="mf">3.3219280948873626</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">))</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">validate</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">n</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="n">n</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="nb">int</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">n</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">n</span> <span class="o">&lt;=</span> <span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="k">raise</span> <span class="ne">ValueError</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;Positive integer expected&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="n">n</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="fm">__setattr__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">value</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">name</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="s1">&#39;CONSTANT&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="k">raise</span> <span class="ne">AttributeError</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;Read-only attribute!&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">name</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="s1">&#39;dps&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">value</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">validate</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">value</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="nb">globals</span><span class="p">()[</span><span class="s1">&#39;dps&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">value</span>
<span class="nb">globals</span><span class="p">()[</span><span class="s1">&#39;prec&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">dps_to_prec</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">value</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">return</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">name</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="s1">&#39;prec&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">value</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">validate</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">value</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="nb">globals</span><span class="p">()[</span><span class="s1">&#39;prec&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">value</span>
<span class="nb">globals</span><span class="p">()[</span><span class="s1">&#39;dps&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">prec_to_dps</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">value</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">return</span>
<span class="nb">globals</span><span class="p">()[</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">value</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="fm">__delattr__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">name</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;CONSTANT&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;dps&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;prec&#39;</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">raise</span> <span class="ne">AttributeError</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;Read-only attribute!&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">del</span> <span class="nb">globals</span><span class="p">()[</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">]</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<div class="highlight-pycon notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="kn">import</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">mplib</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">mplib</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">foo</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">&#39;spam&#39;</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">mplib</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">CONSTANT</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">42</span>
<span class="gt">Traceback (most recent call last):</span>
<span class="w"> </span><span class="c">...</span>
<span class="gr">AttributeError</span>: <span class="n">Read-only attribute!</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="k">del</span> <span class="n">mplib</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">foo</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="k">del</span> <span class="n">mplib</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">CONSTANT</span>
<span class="gt">Traceback (most recent call last):</span>
<span class="w"> </span><span class="c">...</span>
<span class="gr">AttributeError</span>: <span class="n">Read-only attribute!</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">mplib</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">prec</span>
<span class="go">53</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">mplib</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">dps</span>
<span class="go">15</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">mplib</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">dps</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">5</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">mplib</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">prec</span>
<span class="go">20</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">mplib</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">dps</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">0</span>
<span class="gt">Traceback (most recent call last):</span>
<span class="w"> </span><span class="c">...</span>
<span class="gr">ValueError</span>: <span class="n">Positive integer expected</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</section>
<section id="existing-options">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#existing-options" role="doc-backlink">Existing Options</a></h2>
<p>The current workaround is assigning the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__class__</span></code> of a module object to a
custom subclass of <a class="reference external" href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/types.html#types.ModuleType" title="(in Python v3.13)"><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">types.ModuleType</span></code></a> (see <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id4" id="id1">[1]</a>).</p>
<p>For example, to prevent modification or deletion of an attribute we could use:</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="c1"># mod.py</span>
<span class="kn">import</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">sys</span>
<span class="kn">from</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">types</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">ModuleType</span>
<span class="n">CONSTANT</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mf">3.14</span>
<span class="k">class</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nc">ImmutableModule</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">ModuleType</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="fm">__setattr__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">value</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">raise</span> <span class="ne">AttributeError</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;Read-only attribute!&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="fm">__delattr__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">raise</span> <span class="ne">AttributeError</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;Read-only attribute!&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">sys</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">modules</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="vm">__name__</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="vm">__class__</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">ImmutableModule</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>But this variant is slower (~2x) than the proposed solution. More
importantly, it also brings a noticeable speed regression (~2-3x) for
attribute <em>access</em>.</p>
</section>
<section id="specification">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#specification" role="doc-backlink">Specification</a></h2>
<p>The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__setattr__</span></code> function at the module level should accept two
arguments, the name of an attribute and the value to be assigned,
and return <a class="reference external" href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/constants.html#None" title="(in Python v3.13)"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code></a> or raise an <a class="reference external" href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/exceptions.html#AttributeError" title="(in Python v3.13)"><code class="xref py py-exc docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">AttributeError</span></code></a>.</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="fm">__setattr__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">str</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">value</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">typing</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">Any</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">/</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o">-&gt;</span> <span class="kc">None</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="o">...</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__delattr__</span></code> function should accept one argument,
the name of an attribute, and return <a class="reference external" href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/constants.html#None" title="(in Python v3.13)"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code></a> or raise an
<a class="reference external" href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/exceptions.html#AttributeError" title="(in Python v3.13)"><code class="xref py py-exc docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">AttributeError</span></code></a>:</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="fm">__delattr__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">str</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">/</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o">-&gt;</span> <span class="kc">None</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="o">...</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__setattr__</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__delattr__</span></code> functions are looked up in the
module <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__dict__</span></code>. If present, the appropriate function is called to
customize setting the attribute or its deletion, else the normal
mechanism (storing/deleting the value in the module dictionary) will work.</p>
<p>Defining module <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__setattr__</span></code> or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__delattr__</span></code> only affects lookups made
using the attribute access syntax — directly accessing the module globals
(whether by <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">globals()</span></code> within the module, or via a reference to the modules
globals dictionary) is unaffected. For example:</p>
<div class="highlight-pycon notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="kn">import</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">mod</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">mod</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="vm">__dict__</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">&#39;foo&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">&#39;spam&#39;</span> <span class="c1"># bypasses __setattr__, defined in mod.py</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>or</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="c1"># mod.py</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="fm">__setattr__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">value</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="o">...</span>
<span class="n">foo</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">&#39;spam&#39;</span> <span class="c1"># bypasses __setattr__</span>
<span class="nb">globals</span><span class="p">()[</span><span class="s1">&#39;bar&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">&#39;spam&#39;</span> <span class="c1"># here too</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">f</span><span class="p">():</span>
<span class="k">global</span> <span class="n">x</span>
<span class="n">x</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">123</span>
<span class="n">f</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="c1"># and here</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>To use a module global and trigger <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__setattr__</span></code> (or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__delattr__</span></code>),
one can access it via <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.modules[__name__]</span></code> within the modules code:</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="c1"># mod.py</span>
<span class="n">sys</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">modules</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="vm">__name__</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">foo</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">&#39;spam&#39;</span> <span class="c1"># bypasses __setattr__</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="fm">__setattr__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">value</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="o">...</span>
<span class="n">sys</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">modules</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="vm">__name__</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">bar</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">&#39;spam&#39;</span> <span class="c1"># triggers __setattr__</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>This limitation is intentional (just as for the <a class="pep reference internal" href="../pep-0562/" title="PEP 562 Module __getattr__ and __dir__">PEP 562</a>), because the
interpreter highly optimizes access to module globals and disabling all that
and going through special methods written in Python would slow down the code
unacceptably.</p>
</section>
<section id="how-to-teach-this">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#how-to-teach-this" role="doc-backlink">How to Teach This</a></h2>
<p>The “Customizing module attribute access” <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id4" id="id2">[1]</a> section of the documentation
will be expanded to include new functions.</p>
</section>
<section id="reference-implementation">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#reference-implementation" role="doc-backlink">Reference Implementation</a></h2>
<p>The reference implementation for this PEP can be found in <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/python/cpython/pull/108261">CPython PR #108261</a>.</p>
</section>
<section id="backwards-compatibility">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#backwards-compatibility" role="doc-backlink">Backwards compatibility</a></h2>
<p>This PEP may break code that uses module level (global) names
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__setattr__</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__delattr__</span></code>, but the language reference
explicitly reserves <em>all</em> undocumented dunder names, and allows
“breakage without warning” <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id5" id="id3">[2]</a>.</p>
<p>The performance implications of this PEP are small, since additional
dictionary lookup is much cheaper than storing/deleting the value in
the dictionary. Also it is hard to imagine a module that expects the
user to set (and/or delete) attributes enough times to be a
performance concern. On another hand, proposed mechanism allows to
override setting/deleting of attributes without affecting speed of
attribute access, which is much more likely scenario to get a
performance penalty.</p>
</section>
<section id="discussion">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#discussion" role="doc-backlink">Discussion</a></h2>
<p>As pointed out by Victor Stinner, the proposed API could be useful already in
the stdlib, for example to ensure that <a class="reference external" href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/sys.html#sys.modules" title="(in Python v3.13)"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.modules</span></code></a> type is always a
<a class="reference external" href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#dict" title="(in Python v3.13)"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dict</span></code></a>:</p>
<div class="highlight-pycon notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="kn">import</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">sys</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">sys</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">modules</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">123</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="kn">import</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">asyncio</span>
<span class="gt">Traceback (most recent call last):</span>
File <span class="nb">&quot;&lt;stdin&gt;&quot;</span>, line <span class="m">1</span>, in <span class="n">&lt;module&gt;</span>
File <span class="nb">&quot;&lt;frozen importlib._bootstrap&gt;&quot;</span>, line <span class="m">1260</span>, in <span class="n">_find_and_load</span>
<span class="gr">AttributeError</span>: <span class="n">&#39;int&#39; object has no attribute &#39;get&#39;</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>or to prevent deletion of critical <a class="reference external" href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/sys.html#module-sys" title="(in Python v3.13)"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys</span></code></a> attributes, which makes the
code more complicated. For example, code using <a class="reference external" href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/sys.html#sys.stderr" title="(in Python v3.13)"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.stderr</span></code></a> has to
check if the attribute exists and if its not <a class="reference external" href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/constants.html#None" title="(in Python v3.13)"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code></a>. Currently, its
possible to remove any <a class="reference external" href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/sys.html#module-sys" title="(in Python v3.13)"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys</span></code></a> attribute, including functions:</p>
<div class="highlight-pycon notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="kn">import</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">sys</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="k">del</span> <span class="n">sys</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">excepthook</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="o">+</span> <span class="c1"># notice the next line</span>
<span class="go">sys.excepthook is missing</span>
<span class="go"> File &quot;&lt;stdin&gt;&quot;, line 1</span>
<span class="go"> 1+</span>
<span class="go"> ^</span>
<span class="go">SyntaxError: invalid syntax</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>See <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/106016#issue-1771174774">related issue</a> for
other details.</p>
<p>Other stdlib modules also come with attributes which can be overridden (as a
feature) and some input validation here could be helpful. Examples:
<a class="reference external" href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/threading.html#threading.excepthook" title="(in Python v3.13)"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">threading.excepthook</span></code></a>, <a class="reference external" href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/warnings.html#warnings.showwarning" title="(in Python v3.13)"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">warnings.showwarning</span></code></a>,
<a class="reference external" href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/io.html#io.DEFAULT_BUFFER_SIZE" title="(in Python v3.13)"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">io.DEFAULT_BUFFER_SIZE</span></code></a> or <a class="reference external" href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/os.html#os.SEEK_SET" title="(in Python v3.13)"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">os.SEEK_SET</span></code></a>.</p>
<p>Also a typical use case for customizing module attribute access is managing
deprecation warnings. But the <a class="pep reference internal" href="../pep-0562/" title="PEP 562 Module __getattr__ and __dir__">PEP 562</a> accomplishes this scenario only
partially: e.g. its impossible to issue a warning during an attempt to
<em>change</em> a renamed attribute.</p>
</section>
<section id="footnotes">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#footnotes" role="doc-backlink">Footnotes</a></h2>
<aside class="footnote-list brackets">
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id4" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id4">[1]<em> (<a href='#id1'>1</a>, <a href='#id2'>2</a>) </em></dt>
<dd>Customizing module attribute access
(<a class="reference external" href="https://docs.python.org/3.11/reference/datamodel.html#customizing-module-attribute-access">https://docs.python.org/3.11/reference/datamodel.html#customizing-module-attribute-access</a>)</aside>
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id5" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id5">[<a href="#id3">2</a>]</dt>
<dd>Reserved classes of identifiers
(<a class="reference external" href="https://docs.python.org/3.11/reference/lexical_analysis.html#reserved-classes-of-identifiers">https://docs.python.org/3.11/reference/lexical_analysis.html#reserved-classes-of-identifiers</a>)</aside>
</aside>
</section>
<section id="copyright">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#copyright" role="doc-backlink">Copyright</a></h2>
<p>This document is placed in the public domain or under the
CC0-1.0-Universal license, whichever is more permissive.</p>
</section>
</section>
<hr class="docutils" />
<p>Source: <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/python/peps/blob/main/peps/pep-0726.rst">https://github.com/python/peps/blob/main/peps/pep-0726.rst</a></p>
<p>Last modified: <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/python/peps/commits/main/peps/pep-0726.rst">2024-02-28 23:47:57 GMT</a></p>
</article>
<nav id="pep-sidebar">
<h2>Contents</h2>
<ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#abstract">Abstract</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#motivation">Motivation</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#existing-options">Existing Options</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#specification">Specification</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#how-to-teach-this">How to Teach This</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#reference-implementation">Reference Implementation</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#backwards-compatibility">Backwards compatibility</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#discussion">Discussion</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#footnotes">Footnotes</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#copyright">Copyright</a></li>
</ul>
<br>
<a id="source" href="https://github.com/python/peps/blob/main/peps/pep-0726.rst">Page Source (GitHub)</a>
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