[mod_python] Caching issues

> Still not short enough, so much so I stopped part way through.

And for that I apologize.  I do appreciate the straight answer given,
though I would appreciate much more the addition of that fact in some
point-blank documentation that was easy to find.  I have scoured the
mod_python archives by search engine and came out utterly empty
handed.  I knew what the problem was, but I could find nothing to
remedy the issue.  I haven't encountered anything quite like this in
my adventures with PHP, perl, or other similar scripting languages
piloted by Apache.  It raises a valid concern to which I ideally
should have found answers very quickly.

I hope this cures the subsequent issue given in the latter half of my message.

Tim

On Sat, Jan 10, 2009 at 10:23 PM, Graham Dumpleton
<graham.dumpleton at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 2009/1/11 Tim Valenta <tonightslastsong at gmail.com>:
> > Hello all-- I've been experiencing a caching issue from the
> > very beginning of my use of mod_python...  It's been at least 2 months now,
> > and I keep running into actual issues that prevent me from coding.
> > I have a knack for over-explaining, so I'll try to keep this concise yet
> > descriptive.
>
> Still not short enough, so much so I stopped part way through.
>
> The simple matter of it is that mod_python does not do deep checking
> of code for changes, nor does it automatically restart the process
> when code is changed. Thus the need to restart Apache when you make
> code changes to anything imported from sys.path is expected and normal
> behaviour.
>
> The only time any code is automatically reloaded is the direct code
> files imported by mod_python using its own special module importer.
> This is documented under 'import_module()' function in:
>
>  http://www.modpython.org/live/current/doc-html/pyapi-apmeth.html
>
> Graham
>
> > I'm developing a site on my local machine, Windows Vista, using Apache 2.2.x
> > and mod_python 3.3.1 .  I'm a programmer for a living, and I'm not quick to
> > point the finger at the language, *but* (you knew that was coming, eh?) I
> > know my code isn't to blame for the issue:
> > I write some basic code for an 'index.py' file, using the
> > mod_python.publisher handler.  'index.py' includes other modules which I've
> > coded from that same location, etc, etc.  Nothing fancy.  Any changes I make
> > in the 'index.py' file will be reflected immediately on my local web server.
> >  On the other hand, any changes I make to the modules included via import
> > from within 'index.py' are completely ignored by the web server.  It took me
> > a while to realize that my pages didn't reflect my code.  I also discovered
> > that the .pyc files had nothing to do with it.  I finally just restarted the
> > apache web service (which in fact runs as a service on my machine), and then
> > my code finally gets pushed through to the web server.
> > I've been looking around practically every other day for documentation on
> > how to make apache/mod_python simply cut it out and stop caching my python
> > code, but I've found nothing.  You can imagine the annoyance this presents,
> > since I have to restart my web server every single time I make even the
> > slightest change to a 'utility.py' file, etc.
> > I've been coping with the problem for a while now, but then I've found far
> > more annoying issues recently.  To abbreviate the problem into short terms,
> > I've got a main module 'MAIN' which imports another module for a class
> > 'CLASS'.  CLASS also has a few imports, such as 'backend' stuff for
> > interfacing with various databases, etc.  We'll call the 'backend' module
> > "BACKEND".  Given the setup, any changes I make to CLASS or BACKEND require
> > an apache restart in order to take effect.
> > I have a function in CLASS which calls a function from it's imported BACKEND
> > module.  I tried adding a parameter to the BACKEND function in question, and
> > properly passed said parameter while in CLASS, yet the mod_python debugger
> > spits out an error about me having passed 3 arguments, when the BACKEND
> > function takes exactly 2.  This is outright false, since my function in
> > BACKEND looks like:
> > def getUsers(self, req, terms):
> >
> > and I'm calling it with
> > self.backend.getUsers(self.req, search)
> >
> > In reality, my code dictates that I'm passing 3 (including the implicit
> > 'self' argument), and BACKEND's 'getUsers' does in fact take exactly 3
> > arguments.  Yet, the debugger is telling me that it takes only 2.
> > I was trying to pass it 'req' because I wanted to investigate a little error
> > in the code by printing something to the output HTML.  So, my attempt is
> > foiled, since somewhere something isn't being updated to what my most
> > current code actually says.
> > Just to test, I made the 'getUsers' function return immediately with a
> > string of gibberish, like 'return "adsfasdfadsfa"'.  this should make my
> > other code spin wildly out of control and encounter errors, yet when I
> > restart apache and test it... lo and behold, it's completely ignoring my
> > goofy 'return' statement.  The 'getUsers' function is still somehow
> > returning valid data, as if the 'return' wasn't there at all!
> > So then I tried causing actual syntax errors.  The debugger caught this,
> > much to my inner joy.  So I tried causing a semantic error instead:
> > referencing a non-existent attribute of a non-existent variable:
> > madeUpVar.moo = 42
> > Syntactically, nothing wrong, but at run time it should most definitely
> > encounter a NameError or something equally as realistic.  But I restart
> > apache, and... nothing.  The line is completely ignored.
> > Which leads me to believe that it's not actually being 'ignored' per se, but
> > rather the code being compiled is not the same as the code in play within
> > the web server.  When I delete my .pyc files and restart apache and visit
> > the URL that triggers my python code, my .py files are in fact being
> > recompiled down to their byte code .pyc files.  And clearly the interpreter
> > is processing my code, since it flags me on improper syntax.  Yet, no matter
> > what kind of syntactically-sound nonsense I put into my code, the changes
> > aren't being reflected in my web server.
> > These problems come and go, and I've go better explanation than over zealous
> > caching.  I imagine that by tomorrow sometime when I start my computer up,
> > the problem will have disappeared for the time being.
> > I've cursed this computer up and down as I've tried to figure out ANYTHING
> > that I can do to alleviate the issue, by to no avail.
> > Anybody with counsel to spare my tired brain is welcome to share...
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