# what is inspect.py and what is it aimed for?
**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/what-is-inspect-py-and-what-is-it-aimed-for/16897
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Tags:** python
**Created:** [July 4, 2025, 2:03pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/what-is-inspect-py-and-what-is-it-aimed-for/16897 "2025-07-04T14:03:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@nitawa](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/nitawa)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2025, 2:03pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/what-is-inspect-py-and-what-is-it-aimed-for/16897/1 "2025-07-04T14:03:49Z")
Dear experts,
in ParaView 5.13, what is the **inspect** [1] module used for - I don’t see any entry in the documentation about it. Does it correspond to the **site-packages/paraview/inspect.py** file ?
If this is the case, IMHO, the name is a little bit error-prone since **inspect** is also the name of a module in **numpy** (in 1.26 for instance, one has: **numpy.compat.inspect** ). This can lead to some serious issues if the **PYTHONPATH** is expanded.
Thanks for your valuable feedback.
[1] [https://www.paraview.org/paraview-docs/v5.13.0/python/paraview.inspect.html](https://www.paraview.org/paraview-docs/v5.13.0/python/paraview.inspect.html)
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### Author:  [@cory.quammen](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/cory.quammen)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2025, 8:00pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/what-is-inspect-py-and-what-is-it-aimed-for/16897/2 "2025-07-05T20:00:02Z")
> [@nitawa](#):
>
> Does it correspond to the **site-packages/paraview/inspect.py** file ?
Yes. It just prints the ParaView version and pythonpath entry, e.g., on my mac I can run
```auto
> /Applications/ParaView-5.13.3.app/Contents/bin/pvpython -m paraview.inspect
version: 3.10
pythonpath entry: /Applications/ParaView-5.13.3.app/Contents/Python
```
> [@nitawa](#):
>
> If this is the case, IMHO, the name is a little bit error-prone since **inspect** is also the name of a module in **numpy** (in 1.26 for instance, one has: **numpy.compat.inspect** ). This can lead to some serious issues if the **PYTHONPATH** is expanded.
I’m not sure if I understand why this would cause a problem, unless you import both `numpy.compat.*` and `paraview.*` and get a name conflict.
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### Author:  [@nitawa](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/nitawa)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2025, 9:54pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/what-is-inspect-py-and-what-is-it-aimed-for/16897/3 "2025-07-05T21:54:31Z")
> [@cory.quammen](#):
>
> I’m not sure if I understand why this would cause a problem, unless you import both `numpy.compat.*` and `paraview.*` and get a name conflict.
as you wrote: unless you import. IMHO, it would make sens to have some different naming here like e.g. inspector .
Thanks.
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### Author:  [@cory.quammen](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/cory.quammen)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2025, 7:11pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/what-is-inspect-py-and-what-is-it-aimed-for/16897/4 "2025-07-06T19:11:14Z")
It’s not possible to anticipate collisions of names with every other python package one might import all the symbols from. Putting it under the `paraview` package is a reasonable way to guard against such collisions.
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### Author:  [@ahernsean](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/ahernsean)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2025, 8:13pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/what-is-inspect-py-and-what-is-it-aimed-for/16897/5 "2025-07-23T20:13:12Z")
[PEP 8](https://peps.python.org/pep-0008/#imports) discourages using wildcard imports:
> **Wildcard imports (`from import *` ) should be avoided**, as they make it unclear which names are present in the namespace, confusing both readers and many automated tools.