python attribute lookup without any descriptor magic?

Question

I've started to use the python descriptor protocol more extensively in the code I've been writing. Typically, the default python lookup magic is what I want to happen, but sometimes I'm finding I want to get the descriptor object itself instead the results of its __get__ method. Wanting to know the type of the descriptor, or access state stored in the descriptor, or somesuch thing.

I wrote the code below to walk the namespaces in what I believe is the correct ordering, and return the attribute raw regardless of whether it is a descriptor or not. I'm surprised though that I can't find a built-in function or something in the standard library to do this -- I figure it has to be there and I just haven't noticed it or googled for the right search term.

Is there functionality somewhere in the python distribution that already does this (or something similar)?

Thanks!

from inspect import isdatadescriptor

def namespaces(obj):
    obj_dict = None
    if hasattr(obj, '__dict__'):
        obj_dict = object.__getattribute__(obj, '__dict__')

    obj_class = type(obj)
    return obj_dict, [t.__dict__ for t in obj_class.__mro__]

def getattr_raw(obj, name):
    # get an attribute in the same resolution order one would normally,
    # but do not call __get__ on the attribute even if it has one
    obj_dict, class_dicts = namespaces(obj)

    # look for a data descriptor in class hierarchy; it takes priority over
    # the obj's dict if it exists
    for d in class_dicts:
        if name in d and isdatadescriptor(d[name]):
            return d[name]

    # look for the attribute in the object's dictionary
    if obj_dict and name in obj_dict:
        return obj_dict[name]

    # look for the attribute anywhere in the class hierarchy
    for d in class_dicts:
        if name in d:
            return d[name]

    raise AttributeError

Edit Wed, Oct 28, 2009.

Denis's answer gave me a convention to use in my descriptor classes to get the descriptor objects themselves. But, I had an entire class hierarchy of descriptor classes, and I didn't want to begin every __get__ function with a boilerplate

def __get__(self, instance, instance_type):
    if instance is None: 
        return self
    ...

To avoid this, I made the root of the descriptor class tree inherit from the following:

def decorate_get(original_get):
    def decorated_get(self, instance, instance_type):
        if instance is None:
            return self
        return original_get(self, instance, instance_type)
    return decorated_get

class InstanceOnlyDescriptor(object):
    """All __get__ functions are automatically wrapped with a decorator which
    causes them to only be applied to instances. If __get__ is called on a 
    class, the decorator returns the descriptor itself, and the decorated
    __get__ is not called.
    """
    class __metaclass__(type):
        def __new__(cls, name, bases, attrs):
            if '__get__' in attrs:
                attrs['__get__'] = decorate_get(attrs['__get__'])
            return type.__new__(cls, name, bases, attrs)

Answer 1

Most descriptors do their job when accessed as instance attribute only. So it's convenient to return itself when it's accessed for class:

class FixedValueProperty(object):
    def __init__(self, value):
        self.value = value
    def __get__(self, inst, cls):
        if inst is None:
            return self
        return self.value

This allows you to get descriptor itself:

>>> class C(object):
...     prop = FixedValueProperty('abc')
... 
>>> o = C()
>>> o.prop
'abc'
>>> C.prop
<__main__.FixedValueProperty object at 0xb7eb290c>
>>> C.prop.value
'abc'
>>> type(o).prop.value
'abc'

Note, that this works for (most?) built-in descriptors too:

>>> class C(object):
...     @property
...     def prop(self):
...         return 'abc'
... 
>>> C.prop
<property object at 0xb7eb0b6c>
>>> C.prop.fget
<function prop at 0xb7ea36f4>

Accessing descriptor could be useful when you need to extent it in subclass, but there is a better way to do this.