Recursive version of 'reload'

Question

When I'm developing Python code, I usually test it in an ad-hoc way in the interpreter. I'll `import some_module`, test it, find a bug, fix the bug and save, and then use the built-in `reload` function to `reload(some_module)` and test again. However, suppose that in `some_module` I have `import some_other_module`, and while testing `some_module` I discover a bug in `some_other_module` and fix it. Now calling `reload(some_module)` won't recursively re-import `some_other_module`. I have to either manually reimport the dependency (by doing something like `reload(some_module.some_other_module)`, or `import some_other_module; reload(some_other_module)`, or, if I've changed a whole bunch of dependencies and lost track of what I need to reload, I need to restart the entire interpreter. What'd be more convenient is if there were some `recursive_reload` function, and I could just do `recursive_reload(some_module)` and have Python not only reload `some_module`, but also recursively reload ever…

Accepted Answer

I've run up against the same issue, and you inspired me to actually solve the problem.

```
from types import ModuleType

try:
    from importlib import reload  # Python 3.4+
except ImportError:
    # Needed for Python 3.0-3.3; harmless in Python 2.7 where imp.reload is just an
    # alias for the builtin reload.
    from imp import reload

def rreload(module):
    """Recursively reload modules."""
    reload(module)
    for attribute_name in dir(module):
        attribute = getattr(module, attribute_name)
        if type(attribute) is ModuleType:
            rreload(attribute)
```

Or, if you are using IPython, just use `dreload` or pass `--deep-reload` on startup.

Recursive version of 'reload'

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