Note that I have not changed imports that are using from ...overrides import something, set_module, since they need the rest anyway.

Maybe make this numpy.lib._utils?

Yeah, I wanted to put it somewhere deeper, and I don't quite love this either (so happy for other ideas even duplicating the helper).
The problem is, I also want this to be available before any C import happens... lib pulls in the public submodules, which pull in all of NumPy (circular imports).

I guess numpy._utils makes sense. Perhaps we should move numpy/compat/_inspect.py there as well.

Ahh, could we have a numpy._utils (maybe a different name?) directory, and in that have a set_module.py file? Then in the __init__.py it could say something about "A place for code that does not import from the rest of NumPy, to reduce circular dependencies"

Yeah, a submodule/folder make sense, how about being super clear, like _pydefs?

_globals and _inspect could go there as well, then, yeah. Maybe more? I am not sure I love it, but a place to reduce circular imports seems like it likely makes sense anyway.

how about being super clear, like _pydefs

I am bad with names. We are looking for a place to put things with no dependencies. Do we want to definitely restrict ourselves to pure-python modules or can we also put some simple no-dependency c-extension module in the future? I think I prefer something in the direction of utils or basic

Hmmm, yeah, i don't the name _pydefs either anyway. _utils seems fine to me, it is at least a place where you would look for these things?

Created a module, left set_module in the __init__ for the moment. Moved _inspect and _pep440. _inspect is actuall imported to np.compat, but maybe it makes sense to move it anyway?

I will put this in soon if there are no further comments

Thanks @seberg