Reimport a module in python while interactive

Question

I know it can be done, but I never remember how.

How can you reimport a module in python? The scenario is as follows: I import a module interactively and tinker wit

Answer 1

Although the provided answers do work for a specific module, they won't reload submodules, as noted in This answer:

If a module imports objects from another module using from ... import ..., calling reload() for the other module does not redefine the objects imported from it — one way around this is to re-execute the from statement, another is to use import and qualified names (module.*name*) instead.

However, if using the __all__ variable to define the public API, it is possible to automatically reload all publicly available modules:

# Python >= 3.5
import importlib
import types


def walk_reload(module: types.ModuleType) -> None:
    if hasattr(module, "__all__"):
        for submodule_name in module.__all__:
            walk_reload(getattr(module, submodule_name))
    importlib.reload(module)


walk_reload(my_module)

The caveats noted in the previous answer are still valid though. Notably, modifying a submodule that is not part of the public API as described by the __all__ variable won't be affected by a reload using this function. Similarly, removing an element of a submodule won't be reflected by a reload.