PyCQA / PyCQA/pyflakes

Shadowing and unshadowing a builtin makes pyflakes emit a F821

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Description

Consider this silly code:

int = 42
del int

x = int('42')
print(x)

This is perfectly valid Python: if you run it, it'll print 42.

flake8 emits a F821: undefined name 'int' on the penultimate line. I think it's because of the del int.

For a real-world example of this situation, consider a project that uses gettext and installs _ in builtins, but doesn't do that early enough to be available at import time of every module. Here's how linkchecker copes with that situation:

_ = lambda x: x
Fields = dict(
    realurl=_("Real URL"),
    cachekey=_("Cache key"),
...
    level=_("Level"),
    modified=_("Modified"),
)
del _

and this then causes flake8 to complain about _() being used elsewhere in the file:

./linkcheck/logger/__init__.py:278:19: F821 undefined name '_'
./linkcheck/logger/__init__.py:340:16: F821 undefined name '_'
./linkcheck/logger/__init__.py:377:22: F821 undefined name '_'
./linkcheck/logger/__init__.py:380:22: F821 undefined name '_'
./linkcheck/logger/__init__.py:382:22: F821 undefined name '_'
./linkcheck/logger/__init__.py:390:22: F821 undefined name '_'

flake8 --version reports

3.8.2 (flake8_2020: 1.6.0, mccabe: 0.6.1, pycodestyle: 2.6.0, pyflakes: 2.2.0) CPython 3.8.2 on Linux

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First steps

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  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by running the provided shadowing and unshadowing example with pyflakes or flake8, then compare it with the linkcheck example. Trace the undefined-name handling around del and add a regression test showing that valid builtin or gettext uses after deletion do not emit F821; the test should still catch genuinely undefined names.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
tooling
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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