Grimp

Builds a queryable graph of the imports within one or more Python packages.

• Free software: BSD license

Quick start

Install grimp:

pip install grimp

Install the Python package you wish to analyse:

pip install somepackage

In Python, build the import graph for the package:

>>> import grimp
>>> graph = grimp.build_graph('somepackage')

You may now use the graph object to analyse the package. Some examples:

>>> graph.find_children('somepackage.foo')
{
    'somepackage.foo.one',
    'somepackage.foo.two',
}

>>> graph.find_descendants('somepackage.foo')
{
    'somepackage.foo.one',
    'somepackage.foo.two',
    'somepackage.foo.two.blue',
    'somepackage.foo.two.green',
}

>>> graph.find_modules_directly_imported_by('somepackage.foo')
{
    'somepackage.bar.one',
}

>>> graph.find_upstream_modules('somepackage.foo')
{
    'somepackage.bar.one',
    'somepackage.baz',
    'somepackage.foobar',
}

>>> graph.find_shortest_chain(importer='somepackage.foobar', imported='somepackage.foo')
(
    'somepackage.foobar',
    'somepackage.baz',
    'somepackage.foo',
)

>>> graph.get_import_details(importer='somepackage.foobar', imported='somepackage.baz'))
[
    {
        'importer': 'somepackage.foobar',
        'imported': 'somepackage.baz',
        'line_number': 5,
        'line_contents': 'from . import baz',
    },
]

External packages

By default, external dependencies will not be included. This can be overridden like so:

>>> graph = grimp.build_graph('somepackage', include_external_packages=True)
>>> graph.find_modules_directly_imported_by('somepackage.foo')
{
    'somepackage.bar.one',
    'os',
    'decimal',
    'sqlalchemy',
}

Multiple packages

You may analyse multiple root packages. To do this, pass each package name as a positional argument:

>>> graph = grimp.build_graph('somepackage', 'anotherpackage')
>>> graph.find_modules_directly_imported_by('somepackage.foo')
{
    'somepackage.bar.one',
    'anotherpackage.baz',
}

Namespace packages

Graphs can also be built from portions of namespace packages. To do this, provide the portion name, rather than the namespace name:

>>> graph = grimp.build_graph('somenamespace.foo')

What’s a namespace package?

Namespace packages are a Python feature allows subpackages to be distributed independently, while still importable under a shared namespace. This is, for example, used by the Python client for Google’s Cloud Logging API. When installed, it is importable in Python as google.cloud.logging. The parent packages google and google.cloud are both namespace packages, while google.cloud.logging is known as the ‘portion’. Other portions in the same namespace can be installed separately, for example google.cloud.secretmanager.

Grimp expects the package name passed to build_graph to be a portion, rather than a namespace package. So in the case of the example above, the graph should be built like so:

>>> graph = grimp.build_graph('google.cloud.logging')

If, instead, a namespace package is passed (e.g. grimp.build_graph('google.cloud')), Grimp will raise NamespacePackageEncountered.