Question

When I easy_install some python modules, warnings such as:

<some module>: module references __file__
<some module>: module references __path__
<some module>: module MAY be using inspect.trace
<some module>: module MAY be using inspect.getsourcefile

sometimes get emitted.

Where (what package / source file) do these messages come from? Why is referencing __file__ or __path__ considered a bad thing?

Answer 1

easy_install doesn’t like use of __file__ and __path__ not so much because they’re dangerous, but because packages that use them almost always fail to run out of zipped eggs.

easy_install is warning because it’ll install “less efficiently” into an unzipped directory instead of a zipped egg.

In practice, I’m usually glad when the zip_safe check fails, because then if I need to dive into the source of a module it’s a ton easier.