Prevent creating new attributes outside __init__

Question

I want to be able to create a class (in Python) that once initialized with __init__, does not accept new attributes, but accepts modifications of existing attri

Answer 1

If someone is interested in doing that with a decorator, here is a working solution:

from functools import wraps

def froze_it(cls):
    cls.__frozen = False

    def frozensetattr(self, key, value):
        if self.__frozen and not hasattr(self, key):
            print("Class {} is frozen. Cannot set {} = {}"
                  .format(cls.__name__, key, value))
        else:
            object.__setattr__(self, key, value)

    def init_decorator(func):
        @wraps(func)
        def wrapper(self, *args, **kwargs):
            func(self, *args, **kwargs)
            self.__frozen = True
        return wrapper

    cls.__setattr__ = frozensetattr
    cls.__init__ = init_decorator(cls.__init__)

    return cls

Pretty straightforward to use:

@froze_it 
class Foo(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.bar = 10

foo = Foo()
foo.bar = 42
foo.foobar = "no way"

Result:

>>> Class Foo is frozen. Cannot set foobar = no way