site.py: AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'ModuleType' upon running any python file in PyCharm

Question

I was using nltk to parse english on Python 3.4 with PyCharm. When I ran my file, I received the following error:

Error processing line 1 of /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/site-packages/zope.interface-4.1.3-py3.4-nspkg.pth:

  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/site.py", line 167, in addpackage
      exec(line)
    File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
  AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'ModuleType'

Remainder of file ignored
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/james/naturallang/grammar.py", line 3, in <module>
    import nltk.book
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/site-packages/nltk/__init__.py", line 89, in <module>
    from nltk.internals import config_java
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/site-packages/nltk/internals.py", line 11, in <module>
    import subprocess
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/subprocess.py", line 424, in <module>
    _PopenSelector = selectors.SelectSelector
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'SelectSelector'

After a little tinkering, I found that running an empty file gave me the following error:

Error processing line 1 of /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/site-packages/zope.interface-4.1.3-py3.4-nspkg.pth:

  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/site.py", line 167, in addpackage
      exec(line)
    File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
  AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'ModuleType'

Remainder of file ignored

Debugging an empty file gets me:

Error processing line 1 of /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/site-packages/zope.interface-4.1.3-py3.4-nspkg.pth:

  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/site.py", line 167, in addpackage
      exec(line)
    File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
  AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'ModuleType'

Remainder of file ignored
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Applications/PyCharm.app/Contents/helpers/pydev/pydev_imports.py", line 9, in <module>
    import xmlrpclib
ImportError: No module named 'xmlrpclib'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Applications/PyCharm.app/Contents/helpers/pydev/pydev_imports.py", line 11, in <module>
    import xmlrpc.client as xmlrpclib
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/xmlrpc/client.py", line 135, in <module>
    import http.client
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/http/client.py", line 69, in <module>
    import email.parser
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/email/parser.py", line 12, in <module>
    from email.feedparser import FeedParser, BytesFeedParser
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/email/feedparser.py", line 27, in <module>
    from email import message
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/email/message.py", line 16, in <module>
    from email import utils
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/email/utils.py", line 28, in <module>
    import random
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/random.py", line 40, in <module>
    from types import MethodType as _MethodType, BuiltinMethodType as _BuiltinMethodType
ImportError: cannot import name 'MethodType'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Applications/PyCharm.app/Contents/helpers/pydev/pydevd.py", line 10, in <module>
    import pydev_imports
  File "/Applications/PyCharm.app/Contents/helpers/pydev/pydev_imports.py", line 13, in <module>
    from _pydev_imps import _pydev_xmlrpclib as xmlrpclib
  File "/Applications/PyCharm.app/Contents/helpers/pydev/_pydev_imps/_pydev_xmlrpclib.py", line 294
    True, False = True, False
       ^
SyntaxError: can't assign to keyword

I am using PyCharm 5.04 Professional Edition on OS X. I think this has something to do with my editor, but I'm not sure.

Answer 1

There is a file named types.py in your current directory.

This file shadows the types module that is part of the standard library. The nltk program (very) indirectly tries to import types , getting your module, which lacks a ModuleType attribute, causing an ImportError , which never gets caught and produces that traceback.