[issue12902] help("modules") executes module code

[Dev Player]

Dev Player added the comment:

Mentioned for informational purposes only.

I too experience the running of external packages with a different library when 
doing help('modules') in the interpreter. This is a fresh install of Python 3.4 
on WinXP.

The text I get in the python.exe interpreter is:
"Expected Tk Togl installation in 
C:\Python\Python34\lib\site-packages\OpenGl\Tk\togl-win32"

Then I get an empty TK popup window.

Although this other issue was ages ago and was with a different machine, Python 
version and set of libraries I'm giving reference to this only because of 
mention of help(). http://bugs.python.org/issue10060

Although there is a command line option to prevent the import of site, while I 
may not want "help" to be imported, I usually want "site" to be imported. It 
would be nice to exclude the "help" import only via a command line.

I wonder if the interpreter could be given a command line option just to parse 
modules/scripts/packages/librarys to only compile the lines containing def and 
class without anything within the namespace except implicitly declared 
docstrings  (it not __doc__ = """...""")

In other words if you had source like:
def somefunc(arg=None):
   """here is the func __doc__"""
   x = value
   callme()

the interpreter could basically compile that into:

def somefunc(arg-None):
"""here is the func __doc__"""
return None

or perhaps shortcircuit any non def/class/ """ """ to be tokenized as the pass 
statement would be.

Those would be feature/enhance kind thing I suppose.

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nosy: +devplayer

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[issue12902] help("modules") executes module code

[Terry J. Reedy]

Terry J. Reedy  added the comment:

#13902 is essentially a duplicate of this and I may close it.
I am thinking now that executing unknown amounts of unknown code from unknown 
modules is a really bad idea. If a module just crashes the system, as happened 
with the OP of the above, there is no way to tell what the culprit is. So if we 
do not disable 'modules', I thing it should just read directory names and 
forget about docstrings. In any case, output should be flushed as available if 
not now.

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[issue12902] help("modules") executes module code

[Ezio Melotti]

Ezio Melotti  added the comment:

> A separate issue would be a feature request to not do that (assuming it 
> really does).

I tried to verify this (the fact that modules get imported with 
help('modules')).  Here are the results:
  * Lib/foobar.py:
- help('modules'): foobar in the list, code is *not* executed;
- help('foobar'): code is executed;
  * Lib/deleteme/__init__.py:
- help('modules'): deleteme in the list, code is executed;
- help('deleteme'): code is executed;
  * Lib/deleteme/__init__.py and Lib/deleteme/foobar.py:
- help('modules'): deleteme in the list, only __init__ code is executed;
- help('deleteme.foobar'): foobar code is executed;

So it seems the only code that gets executed with help('modules') is the one in 
packages' __init__s.  It also seems that the code is executed only once, so 
doing help('deleteme') after help('modules') doesn't execute the code again.

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[issue12902] help("modules") executes module code

[Ezio Melotti]

Ezio Melotti  added the comment:

Right, I missed that.
If we change the way the list is created this bug will be probably get fixed 
too.  If we don't, we should open another issue.

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[issue12902] help("modules") executes module code

[Terry J. Reedy]

Terry J. Reedy  added the comment:

As I said in msg143786, the second time only c-coded modules are listed.

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[issue12902] help("modules") executes module code

[Ezio Melotti]

Ezio Melotti  added the comment:

Since help("modules") just shows a list of modules without any description, 
maybe it could avoid importing them until further information about individual 
modules are requested.

Also while trying to do help("modules") twice on py3k, I noticed that the 
second time many modules are missing from the list.  Is this expected and/or a 
known issue?

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nosy: +rhettinger

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[issue12902] help("modules") executes module code

[Ezio Melotti]

Ezio Melotti  added the comment:

> "Warning: gathering the results for the topic 'modules' can take
> considerable time and have side effects as it imports *every* module
> available to get at its doc string."

http://docs.python.org/documenting/style.html#affirmative-tone

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[issue12902] help("modules") executes module code

[Terry J. Reedy]

Terry J. Reedy  added the comment:

The immediate issue is improvement of the entries for help and help():

In builtin functions section:

Expand "Invoke the built-in help system." to
"Invoke the built-in help system, which uses *pydoc*."
where *pydoc* is linked to the pydoc section.

Add to the end of the entry something like "As needed, pydoc imports modules to 
get their doc strings."

The special string 'modules' is not documented in the manual entry for help() 
itself. That is fine. It does appear in the longer text that appears for 
'help()'. That text, where ever it is, could and should have a warning.

"Warning: gathering the results for the topic 'modules' can take considerable 
time and have side effects as it imports *every* module available to get at its 
doc string."

A separate issue would be a feature request to not do that (assuming it really 
does). Given that 'modules' just produces a list of (incomplete) module names, 
I do not see the point of importing until one requests help on a particular 
name.

There seems to be a bug. In a fresh 3.2.2 IDLE window, help('modules') produces 
about 300 names. If I repeat, I get a reduced list of 58 names. These seem to 
just be the builtin C-coded modules, like 'math', with all Python-coded 
modules, like 'random', omitted.

--
assignee:  -> docs@python
components: +Documentation
nosy: +docs@python, terry.reedy
stage:  -> needs patch
versions: +Python 2.7, Python 3.2, Python 3.3

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[issue12902] help("modules") executes module code

[Ezio Melotti]

Changes by Ezio Melotti :


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nosy: +ezio.melotti

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[issue12902] help("modules") executes module code

[Éric Araujo]

Éric Araujo  added the comment:

Thanks for the report.  This comes from the fact that pydoc imports the modules 
in order to get their documentation.  Your message makes me think that the 
KWallet Python modules have a problem: they should not pop GUIs at import time! 
 Please report this to them.

In the Python docs, there is a note warning about this: 
http://docs.python.org/dev/library/pydoc .  The doc for help, which is not on 
the same page, does not: http://docs.python.org/dev/library/functions#help

It could be possible to load the code of a module without executing it.  I’m 
not sure it would be a good idea; maybe you could ask for opinions on the 
python-ideas mailing list?

--
components:  -None
nosy: +eric.araujo
versions:  -Python 2.7

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[issue12902] help("modules") executes module code

[dronus]

New submission from dronus :

When running help("modules"), some code of the modules seems to be run. For 
example, on my Gnome system KWallet  configuration GUI pops up and stalls 
further opereation. I think no one expect help("modules") run abitrary code 
instead of just outputting a list of modules.

--
components: None
messages: 143556
nosy: dronus
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: help("modules") executes module code
type: behavior
versions: Python 2.7

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