Not getting changed value of class attribute in deserialized version

[vmlaker]

When I change a class variable defined in a module (in a file), I'm still getting the old value upon deserializing. This seems inconsistent when compared to dilling an interactively declared class, where the variable does indeed reflect the changed value.

Say we define a class in file A.py:

class A:
   b = 1

In first Python shell I serialize the changed class:

>>> from A import A
>>> A.b
1
>>> A.b = 42
>>> A.b
42
>>> with open('A.pkl', 'w') as f: dill.dump(A, f)
... 

In a second Python shell we deserialize, however the class variable retains the original value:

>>> with open('A.pkl', 'r') as f: A = dill.load(f)
... 
>>> A.b
1

Interestingly enough, everything works as expected so long as I define my class interactively. For example, in first Python shell we can do:

>>> class A:
...   b = 1
... 
>>> A.b
1
>>> A.b = 42
>>> A.b
42
>>> with open('A.pkl', 'w') as f: dill.dump(A, f)
...

Then in second Python shell, the result is as expected:

>>> with open('A.pkl', 'r') as f: A = dill.load(f)
...
>>> A.b
42

[matsjoyce]

This is (currently) expected behaviour. To support changing that, see #42.

[mmckerns]

Yes, this is not a bug. I agree that it is a bit of an odd behavior -- and thus may be unexpected from a user perspective. @vmlaker: This is a totally valid issue… however I'm closing it as it is a duplicate of #42.