Skip to main content
https://img.shields.io/github/actions/workflow/status/adamchainz/patchy/main.yml.svg?branch=main&style=for-the-badge https://img.shields.io/badge/Coverage-100%25-success?style=for-the-badge https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/patchy.svg?style=for-the-badge https://img.shields.io/badge/code%20style-black-000000.svg?style=for-the-badge pre-commit
A patchy pirate.

Patch the inner source of python functions at runtime.

A quick example, making a function that returns 1 instead return 9001:

>>> def sample():
...     return 1
...
>>> patchy.patch(
...     sample,
...     """\
...     @@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
...      def sample():
...     -    return 1
...     +    return 9001
...     """,
... )
>>> sample()
9001

Patchy works by replacing the code attribute of the function, leaving the function object itself the same. It’s thus more versatile than monkey patching, since if the function has been imported in multiple places they’ll also call the new behaviour.


Hacking on a Django project? Check out my book Boost Your Django DX which covers many ways to improve your development experience.


Installation

Use pip:

python -m pip install patchy

Python 3.10 to 3.15 supported.

Why?

If you’re monkey-patching an external library to add or fix some functionality, you will probably forget to check the monkey patch when you upgrade it. By using a patch against its source code, you can specify some context that you expect to remain the same in the function that will be checked before the source is applied.

I found this with some small but important patches to Django for a project. Since it takes a lot of energy to maintain a fork, writing monkey patches was the chosen quick solution, but then writing actual patches would be better.

The patches are applied in-memory by unipatch, a pure-Python implementation of unified diff patching, compatible with the behaviour of the GNU patch commandline utility.

Why not?

There are of course a lot of reasons against:

  • If you have a patch file, why not just fork the library and apply it?

  • At least with monkey-patching you know what end up with, rather than having the changes being done at runtime to source that may have changed.

All are valid arguments. However once in a while this might be the right solution.

How?

The standard library function inspect.getsource() is used to retrieve the source code of the function, the patch is applied in-memory with unipatch, the code is recompiled, and the function’s code object is replaced the new one. Because nothing tends to poke around at code objects apart from dodgy hacks like this, you don’t need to worry about chasing any references that may exist to the function, unlike mock.patch.

A little special treatment is given to instancemethod, classmethod, and staticmethod objects to make sure the underlying function is what gets patched and that you don’t have to worry about the details.

API

patch(func, patch_text)

Apply the patch patch_text to the source of function func. func may be either a function, or a string providing the dotted path to import a function.

If the patch is invalid, for example the context lines don’t match, ValueError will be raised, with a message that includes all the output from the patch utility.

Note that patch_text will be textwrap.dedent()’ed, but leading whitespace will not be removed. Therefore the correct way to include the patch is with a triple-quoted string with a backslash - """\ - which starts the string and avoids including the first newline. A final newline is not required and will be automatically added if not present.

Example:

import patchy


def sample():
    return 1


patchy.patch(
    sample,
    """\
    @@ -2,2 +2,2 @@
    -    return 1
    +    return 2""",
)

print(sample())  # prints 2

mc_patchface(func, patch_text)

An alias for patch, so you can meme it up by calling patchy.mc_patchface().

unpatch(func, patch_text)

Unapply the patch patch_text from the source of function func. This is the reverse of patch()ing it, and calls patch --reverse.

The same error and formatting rules apply as in patch().

Example:

import patchy


def sample():
    return 2


patchy.unpatch(
    sample,
    """\
    @@ -2,2 +2,2 @@
    -    return 1
    +    return 2""",
)

print(sample())  # prints 1

temp_patch(func, patch_text)

Takes the same arguments as patch. Usable as a context manager or function decorator to wrap code with a call to patch before and unpatch after.

Context manager example:

def sample():
    return 1234


patch_text = """\
    @@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
     def sample():
    -    return 1234
    +    return 5678
    """

with patchy.temp_patch(sample, patch_text):
    print(sample())  # prints 5678

Decorator example, using the same sample and patch_text:

@patchy.temp_patch(sample, patch_text)
def my_func():
    return sample() == 5678


print(my_func())  # prints True

replace(func, expected_source, new_source)

Check that function or dotted path to function func has an AST matching expected_source, then replace its inner code object with source compiled from new_source. If the AST check fails, ValueError will be raised with current/expected source code in the message. In the author’s opinion it’s preferable to call patch() so your call makes it clear to see what is being changed about func, but using replace() is simpler as you don’t have to make a patch and there is no subprocess call to the patch utility.

Note both expected_source and new_source will be textwrap.dedent()’ed, so the best way to include their source is with a triple quoted string with a backslash escape on the first line, as per the example below.

If you want, you can pass expected_source=None to avoid the guard against your target changing, but this is highly unrecommended as it means if the original function changes, the call to replace() will continue to silently succeed.

Example:

import patchy


def sample():
    return 1


patchy.replace(
    sample,
    """\
    def sample():
        return 1
    """,
    """\
    def sample():
        return 42
    """,
)

print(sample())  # prints 42

How to Create a Patch

  1. Save the source of the function of interest (and nothing else) in a .py file, e.g. before.py:

    def foo():
        print("Change me")

    Make sure you dedent it so there is no whitespace before the def, i.e. d is the first character in the file. For example if you wanted to patch the bar() method below:

    class Foo:
        def bar(self, x):
            return x * 2

    …you would put just the method in a file like so:

    def bar(self, x):
        return x * 2

    However we’ll continue with the first example before.py since it’s simpler.

  2. Copy that .py file, to e.g. after.py, and make the changes you want, such as:

    def foo():
        print("Changed")
  3. Run diff, e.g. diff -u before.py after.py. You will get output like:

    diff --git a/Users/chainz/tmp/before.py b/Users/chainz/tmp/after.py
    index e6b32c6..31fe8d9 100644
    --- a/Users/chainz/tmp/before.py
    +++ b/Users/chainz/tmp/after.py
    @@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
     def foo():
    -    print("Change me")
    +    print("Changed")
  4. The filenames are not necessary for patchy to work. Take only from the first @@ line onwards into the multiline string you pass to patchy.patch():

    patchy.patch(
        foo,
        """\
        @@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
         def foo():
        -    print("Change me")
        +    print("Changed")
        """,
    )

Download files

Download the file for your platform. If you're not sure which to choose, learn more about installing packages.

Source Distribution

patchy-3.0.0.tar.gz (9.2 kB view details)

Uploaded Source

Built Distribution

If you're not sure about the file name format, learn more about wheel file names.

patchy-3.0.0-py3-none-any.whl (9.5 kB view details)

Uploaded Python 3

File details

Details for the file patchy-3.0.0.tar.gz.

File metadata

  • Download URL: patchy-3.0.0.tar.gz
  • Upload date:
  • Size: 9.2 kB
  • Tags: Source
  • Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? Yes
  • Uploaded via: twine/6.1.0 CPython/3.13.13

File hashes

Hashes for patchy-3.0.0.tar.gz
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 7a578df85d81d67b4ef8a1e25538a6bd7c002f6259ca01aeb6fb27d4e89dc5fa
MD5 c963abe824e7bc60ddaf617885550940
BLAKE2b-256 2548584c278bcf8c0205df09d953d8dd0a5d36cd1210aed04765380cc4420318

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for patchy-3.0.0.tar.gz:

Publisher: main.yml on adamchainz/patchy

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

File details

Details for the file patchy-3.0.0-py3-none-any.whl.

File metadata

  • Download URL: patchy-3.0.0-py3-none-any.whl
  • Upload date:
  • Size: 9.5 kB
  • Tags: Python 3
  • Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? Yes
  • Uploaded via: twine/6.1.0 CPython/3.13.13

File hashes

Hashes for patchy-3.0.0-py3-none-any.whl
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 b43e44326601f4bc8e6b0c3f054333f1d9cd1896ec92b5ecc28ed6d30d789de3
MD5 c2fb7cd15dee3bbfa9f1ce6cc5fbce2c
BLAKE2b-256 d076dac8ae9b6469570146c40de089c24e1f71ec6153f93a2642636fe08a6246

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for patchy-3.0.0-py3-none-any.whl:

Publisher: main.yml on adamchainz/patchy

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

Release history Release notifications | RSS feed

3.1.0

2 files

This release

3.0.0 This release

2 files

2.10.0

2 files

2.9.0

2 files

2.8.0

2 files

2.7.0

2 files

2.6.1

2 files

2.6.0

2 files

2.5.0

2 files

2.4.0

2 files

2.3.0

2 files

2.2.0

2 files

2.1.0

2 files

2.0.0

2 files

1.5.0

2 files

1.4.0

2 files

1.3.2

2 files

1.3.1

2 files

1.3.0

2 files

1.2.0

2 files

1.1.0

2 files

1.0.0

2 files

Supported by

AWS Cloud computing and Security Sponsor Datadog Monitoring Depot Continuous Integration Fastly CDN Google Download Analytics Sentry Error logging StatusPage Status page