unittest.mock doc: Fix references to recursive seal of Mocks (GH-9028)
The docs in `library/unittest.mock` have been updated to remove
confusing terms about submock and be explicit about the behavior
expected.
diff --git a/Doc/library/unittest.mock.rst b/Doc/library/unittest.mock.rst
index edafca0..136804c 100644
--- a/Doc/library/unittest.mock.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/unittest.mock.rst
@@ -2410,17 +2410,18 @@
.. function:: seal(mock)
- Seal will disable the creation of mock children by preventing getting or setting
- of any new attribute on the sealed mock. The sealing process is performed recursively.
+ Seal will disable the automatic creation of mocks when accessing an attribute of
+ the mock being sealed or any of its attributes that are already mocks recursively.
- If a mock instance is assigned to an attribute instead of being dynamically created
+ If a mock instance with a name or a spec is assigned to an attribute
it won't be considered in the sealing chain. This allows one to prevent seal from
fixing part of the mock object. ::
>>> mock = Mock()
>>> mock.submock.attribute1 = 2
- >>> mock.not_submock = mock.Mock()
+ >>> mock.not_submock = mock.Mock(name="sample_name")
>>> seal(mock)
+ >>> mock.new_attribute # This will raise AttributeError.
>>> mock.submock.attribute2 # This will raise AttributeError.
>>> mock.not_submock.attribute2 # This won't raise.
diff --git a/Lib/unittest/mock.py b/Lib/unittest/mock.py
index 83026e6..6b7f293 100644
--- a/Lib/unittest/mock.py
+++ b/Lib/unittest/mock.py
@@ -2425,15 +2425,14 @@
def seal(mock):
- """Disable the automatic generation of "submocks"
+ """Disable the automatic generation of child mocks.
Given an input Mock, seals it to ensure no further mocks will be generated
when accessing an attribute that was not already defined.
- Submocks are defined as all mocks which were created DIRECTLY from the
- parent. If a mock is assigned to an attribute of an existing mock,
- it is not considered a submock.
-
+ The operation recursively seals the mock passed in, meaning that
+ the mock itself, any mocks generated by accessing one of its attributes,
+ and all assigned mocks without a name or spec will be sealed.
"""
mock._mock_sealed = True
for attr in dir(mock):