mod_python.publisher does not support modules with the same name but in different directories

• Key: MODPYTHON-9
• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Resolution: Fixed
• Priority: Major
• Assignee: Nicolas Lehuen
• Reporter: Nicolas Lehuen
• Affects Version/s: 3.1.3
• Fix Version/s: 3.2.7

Description

Using mod_python.publisher, you have two modules :

/index.py
/subdir/index.py

The problem is that due to the way published modules are imported, the resulting behaviour is unpredictable. Sometimes when calling /subdir/index.py the /index.py module is called, and vice versa.

This bug is very annoying because new mod_python users encounter it frequently, and I don't think it gives good press to mod_python.

Comments

[Graham Dumpleton]

Additional information from the mailing list which clarifies this issue.

Sticky modules obscuring real module
------------------------------------

Create and "index.py", "subdir-1/index.py" and "subdir-2/index.py" all
containing:

  import os
  def index():
    return os.getpid(),__file__

Now cycle through accessing these in the order:

  index.py
  subdir-1/index.py
  index.py
  subdir-2/index.py
  index.py
  subdir-1/index.py
  index.py
  subdir-2/index.py
  ...

In my case this is:

  /~grahamd/publisher
  /~grahamd/publisher/subdir-1
  /~grahamd/publisher
  /~grahamd/publisher/subdir-2
  /~grahamd/publisher
  /~grahamd/publisher/subdir-1
  /~grahamd/publisher
  /~grahamd/publisher/subdir-2
  /~grahamd/publisher
  ...

The result for this is:

  (521, '/Users/grahamd/Sites/publisher/index.py')
  (521, '/Users/grahamd/Sites/publisher/subdir-1/index.py')
  (521, '/Users/grahamd/Sites/publisher/subdir-1/index.py')
  (521, '/Users/grahamd/Sites/publisher/subdir-2/index.py')
  (521, '/Users/grahamd/Sites/publisher/subdir-2/index.py')
  (521, '/Users/grahamd/Sites/publisher/subdir-1/index.pyc')
  (521, '/Users/grahamd/Sites/publisher/subdir-1/index.pyc')
  (521, '/Users/grahamd/Sites/publisher/subdir-2/index.pyc')
  (521, '/Users/grahamd/Sites/publisher/subdir-2/index.pyc')

One can see that once one of the "index.py" files in the subdirectories is
accessed, they become sticky and the latest one accessed from a subdirectory
is returned instead of the top level one when it is accessed.

This one has got to be a bug.

Done, along with a fix for MODPYTHON-8.