reload_config no longer properly reloads user-set values #18138

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1. mhvk

   added

   Bug

   config

   on May 13, 2025
2. mhvk commented on May 13, 2025

   

   mhvk

   on May 13, 2025

   Last edited by pllim

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   A fix is the following, but this is astropy specific, so not quite correct. It may be better to make value some kind of weakref link to the actual configuration. CC @saimn since the caching in #17461 is what is causing the problems.

   git diff
   diff --git a/astropy/config/configuration.py b/astropy/config/configuration.py
   index 8b08f9c55d..3a57abf096 100644
   --- a/astropy/config/configuration.py
   +++ b/astropy/config/configuration.py
   @@ -771,6 +771,16 @@ def reload_config(packageormod=None, rootname=None):
            Name of the root configuration directory - see `get_config`
            for details.
        """
   +    sec = get_config(packageormod, False, rootname=rootname)
   +    # look for the section that is its own parent - that's the base object
   +    while sec.parent is not sec:
   +        sec = sec.parent
   +    # Reset any items explicitly set, to clear possible cached values.
   +    for modname, keys in sec.items():
   +        mod = importlib.import_module(f"astropy.{modname}")
   +        conf = getattr(mod, "conf", None)
   +        if conf is not None:
   +            conf.reload()
        sec = get_config(packageormod, True, rootname=rootname)
        # look for the section that is its own parent - that's the base object
        while sec.parent is not sec:
3. pllim

   added this to the v7.1.0 milestone on May 13, 2025
4. pllim

   added

   🔥CriticalCritical

   on May 13, 2025
5. pllim

   marked TST: doctest of conf.remote_timeout sometimes fails on double run #18135 as a duplicate of this issue on May 13, 2025
6. pllim commented on May 13, 2025

   

   pllim

   on May 13, 2025

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   Thanks for investigating, @mhvk !

   I think this is a release blocker for astropy v7.1.0. We cannot ship a release with broken public API that affects config for downstream packages. Simplest is to revert #17461 unless someone has a better idea. And definitely need RC2 now after this is patched. What do you think @astropy/astropy-project-release-team ?

   Also cc @Cadair since apparently he is very into subclassing config stuff downstream.

   👍React with 👍1Reacted by Marten van Kerkwijk
7. saimn commented on May 13, 2025

   

   saimn

   on May 13, 2025

   Last edited by saimn

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   Darn! There are too many ways to do stuff with this config API...
   We could do what @mhvk proposes, just need to get the package name, which can be done the same was as get_config. (I think but actually maybe not, not sure how it works for e.g. astroquery which puts its config file in .astropy/config/... edit: forget this, people would need to specify packageormod in that case)
8. saimn commented on May 14, 2025

   

   saimn

   on May 14, 2025

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   +    for modname, keys in sec.items():
   +        mod = importlib.import_module(f"astropy.{modname}")
   

   actually this doesn't work, sec.items() just returns the caller module (config.configuration) and not the list of modules that would need to be reloaded. And I don't know how to get this list (we would need to reload all conf objects for the package but we don't store that list).
9. pllim

   closed this as completedin #18144on May 14, 2025