Re-import custom functions without restarting QGIS

Question

I have a python file (in [user]\.qgis2\python) with some functions that I'm working on. It's just a .py file with a bunch of def function_1, def function_2 etc. in it. On startup I import the .py file with all the functions from my_functions.py import * and then play around with them. at this stage I'm still getting lots of errors, so I go back to my python file in a text editor, make some changes and save the file.

How do I get these changes to be reflected within QGIS? I've tried re-importing the .py file but I get the same errors that I've just corrected, so the only way I've been able to use the modified functions is by restarting QGIS and then importing again.

Answer 1

When I wanted to re-import the startup.py file after I made some edits, I used:

import imp, startup
# Use last 3 lines to reload script after saving edits
imp.reload(startup)
from startup import *
run_function()

This saved me the trouble of having to restart QGIS.

Since imp has been removed in python version 3.12, use importlib instead:

import importlib, startup
# Use last 3 lines to reload script after saving edits
importlib.reload(startup)
from startup import *
run_function()

• Pavel Pereverzev: thanks a lot! It also worked for me in making an update for custom plugin.
• MoritzMoreira: imp is now importlib! this gis.stackexchange.com/questions/225444/… is the same question, the only additional information there is the link to stackoverflow.com/questions/1517038/python-refresh-reload, I think.