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(python2.1-lib.info)Modules

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Modules
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The only special operation on a module is attribute access: `M.NAME',
where M is a module and NAME accesses a name defined in M's symbol
table.  Module attributes can be assigned to.  (Note that the `import'
statement is not, strictly speaking, an operation on a module object;
`import FOO' does not require a module object named FOO to exist,
rather it requires an (external) _definition_ for a module named FOO
somewhere.)

A special member of every module is `__dict__'.  This is the dictionary
containing the module's symbol table.  Modifying this dictionary will
actually change the module's symbol table, but direct assignment to the
`__dict__' attribute is not possible (i.e., you can write
`M.__dict__['a'] = 1', which defines `M.a' to be `1', but you can't
write `M.__dict__ = {}'.

Modules built into the interpreter are written like this: `<module
'sys' (built-in)>'.  If loaded from a file, they are written as
`<module 'os' from '/usr/local/lib/python2.1/os.pyc'>'.