Question

I’m importing modules from strings (don’t ask) using the imp library. This is all working fine and dandy, but when there’s an error in such a module, I get a stacktrace like this:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 33, in do_something
  File "<string>", line 20, in really_do_something
Exception: STRING FILENAME EXAMPLE

I’ve tried setting the file attribute on the module to something that makes sense, but the <string> filename is still used in the exception traceback.

Any ideas on how to specify the filename used in the exception?

UPDATE: I’m using imp like this: Dynamic module importing is trying to do relative imports when it shouldn't

Answer 1

The filename is set in the code objects produced by exec(). Instead of using exec() with a string, you should use compile() to compile your code separately. That way you can set the filename:

code = compile(file_contents, '/your/filename.py', 'exec')
exec(code, mod.__dict__)