How to warn about class (name) deprecation

Solution 1:

Maybe I could make OldClsName a function which emits a warning (to logs) and constructs the NewClsName object from its parameters (using *args and **kvargs) but it doesn't seem elegant enough (or maybe it is?).

Yup, I think that's pretty standard practice:

def OldClsName(*args, **kwargs):
    from warnings import warn
    warn("get with the program!")
    return NewClsName(*args, **kwargs)

The only tricky thing is if you have things that subclass from OldClsName - then we have to get clever. If you just need to keep access to class methods, this should do it:

class DeprecationHelper(object):
    def __init__(self, new_target):
        self.new_target = new_target

    def _warn(self):
        from warnings import warn
        warn("Get with the program!")

    def __call__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        self._warn()
        return self.new_target(*args, **kwargs)

    def __getattr__(self, attr):
        self._warn()
        return getattr(self.new_target, attr)

OldClsName = DeprecationHelper(NewClsName)

I haven't tested it, but that should give you the idea - __call__ will handle the normal-instantation route, __getattr__ will capture accesses to the class methods & still generate the warning, without messing with your class heirarchy.

Solution 2:

Please have a look at warnings.warn.

As you'll see, the example in the documentation is a deprecation warning:

def deprecation(message):
    warnings.warn(message, DeprecationWarning, stacklevel=2)

Solution 3:

Here is the list of requirements a solution should satisfy:

• Instantiation of a deprecated class should raise a warning
• Subclassing of a deprecated class should raise a warning
• Support isinstance and issubclass checks

Solution

This can be achieved with a custom metaclass:

class DeprecatedClassMeta(type):
    def __new__(cls, name, bases, classdict, *args, **kwargs):
        alias = classdict.get('_DeprecatedClassMeta__alias')

        if alias is not None:
            def new(cls, *args, **kwargs):
                alias = getattr(cls, '_DeprecatedClassMeta__alias')

                if alias is not None:
                    warn("{} has been renamed to {}, the alias will be "
                         "removed in the future".format(cls.__name__,
                             alias.__name__), DeprecationWarning, stacklevel=2)

                return alias(*args, **kwargs)

            classdict['__new__'] = new
            classdict['_DeprecatedClassMeta__alias'] = alias

        fixed_bases = []

        for b in bases:
            alias = getattr(b, '_DeprecatedClassMeta__alias', None)

            if alias is not None:
                warn("{} has been renamed to {}, the alias will be "
                     "removed in the future".format(b.__name__,
                         alias.__name__), DeprecationWarning, stacklevel=2)

            # Avoid duplicate base classes.
            b = alias or b
            if b not in fixed_bases:
                fixed_bases.append(b)

        fixed_bases = tuple(fixed_bases)

        return super().__new__(cls, name, fixed_bases, classdict,
                               *args, **kwargs)

    def __instancecheck__(cls, instance):
        return any(cls.__subclasscheck__(c)
            for c in {type(instance), instance.__class__})

    def __subclasscheck__(cls, subclass):
        if subclass is cls:
            return True
        else:
            return issubclass(subclass, getattr(cls,
                              '_DeprecatedClassMeta__alias'))

Explanation

DeprecatedClassMeta.__new__ method is called not only for a class it is a metaclass of but also for every subclass of this class. That gives an opportunity to ensure that no instance of DeprecatedClass will ever be instantiated or subclassed.

Instantiation is simple. The metaclass overrides the __new__ method of DeprecatedClass to always return an instance of NewClass.

Subclassing is not much harder. DeprecatedClassMeta.__new__ receives a list of base classes and needs to replace instances of DeprecatedClass with NewClass.

Finally, the isinstance and issubclass checks are implemented via __instancecheck__ and __subclasscheck__ defined in PEP 3119.

Test

class NewClass:
    foo = 1


class NewClassSubclass(NewClass):
    pass


class DeprecatedClass(metaclass=DeprecatedClassMeta):
    _DeprecatedClassMeta__alias = NewClass


class DeprecatedClassSubclass(DeprecatedClass):
    foo = 2


class DeprecatedClassSubSubclass(DeprecatedClassSubclass):
    foo = 3


assert issubclass(DeprecatedClass, DeprecatedClass)
assert issubclass(DeprecatedClassSubclass, DeprecatedClass)
assert issubclass(DeprecatedClassSubSubclass, DeprecatedClass)
assert issubclass(NewClass, DeprecatedClass)
assert issubclass(NewClassSubclass, DeprecatedClass)

assert issubclass(DeprecatedClassSubclass, NewClass)
assert issubclass(DeprecatedClassSubSubclass, NewClass)

assert isinstance(DeprecatedClass(), DeprecatedClass)
assert isinstance(DeprecatedClassSubclass(), DeprecatedClass)
assert isinstance(DeprecatedClassSubSubclass(), DeprecatedClass)
assert isinstance(NewClass(), DeprecatedClass)
assert isinstance(NewClassSubclass(), DeprecatedClass)

assert isinstance(DeprecatedClassSubclass(), NewClass)
assert isinstance(DeprecatedClassSubSubclass(), NewClass)

assert NewClass().foo == 1
assert DeprecatedClass().foo == 1
assert DeprecatedClassSubclass().foo == 2
assert DeprecatedClassSubSubclass().foo == 3