tutorial.md

Import a module from memory

We will create a Python module in an in-memory filesystem, import it, and remove its importer.

Install

Use Python 3.10 or newer:

python -m pip install fsspec-python

Create a module

Create import_demo.py:

import fsspec

from fsspec_python import install_importer, uninstall_importer

fs = fsspec.filesystem("memory")
fs.pipe_file("/import-demo/hello_remote.py", b'def greet():\n    return "Hello from memory"\n')
print(fs.ls("/import-demo", detail=False))

Run python import_demo.py. The listing contains /import-demo/hello_remote.py.

Import and call the function

Append:

importer = install_importer(fs, fo="/import-demo")
try:
    import hello_remote

    print(hello_remote.greet())
finally:
    uninstall_importer(importer)

Run the script again. Its final line is:

Hello from memory

Check cleanup

Append:

import sys

print("hello_remote" in sys.modules)

Run the script. The final line is False: removing the importer also removed its tracked module from Python's module cache.

See How to install and remove importers to use a filesystem URL.