Overriding the default type() metaclass before Python runs

Question

Here be dragons. You\'ve been warned.

I\'m thinking about creating a new library that will attempt to help write a better test suite.
In order to

Answer 1

The following is not advisable, and you'll hit plenty of problems and cornercases implementing your idea, but on Python 3.1 and onwards, you can hook into the custom class creation process by overriding the __build_class__ built-in hook:

import builtins


_orig_build_class = builtins.__build_class__


class SomeMockingMeta(type):
    # whatever


def my_build_class(func, name, *bases, **kwargs):
    if not any(isinstance(b, type) for b in bases):
        # a 'regular' class, not a metaclass
        if 'metaclass' in kwargs:
            if not isinstance(kwargs['metaclass'], type):
                # the metaclass is a callable, but not a class
                orig_meta = kwargs.pop('metaclass')
                class HookedMeta(SomeMockingMeta):
                    def __new__(meta, name, bases, attrs):
                        return orig_meta(name, bases, attrs)
                kwargs['metaclass'] = HookedMeta
            else:
                # There already is a metaclass, insert ours and hope for the best
                class SubclassedMeta(SomeMockingMeta, kwargs['metaclass']):
                    pass
                kwargs['metaclass'] = SubclassedMeta
        else:
            kwargs['metaclass'] = SomeMockingMeta

    return _orig_build_class(func, name, *bases, **kwargs)


builtins.__build_class__ = my_build_class

This is limited to custom classes only, but does give you an all-powerful hook.

For Python versions before 3.1, you can forget hooking class creation. The C build_class function directly uses the C-type type() value if no metaclass has been defined, it never looks it up from the __builtin__ module, so you cannot override it.