Putting together Alex Martelli’s answer and Rob Young’s comment you get the following code:
from copy import copy, deepcopy
class A(object):
def __init__(self):
print 'init'
self.v = 10
self.z = [2,3,4]
def __copy__(self):
cls = self.__class__
result = cls.__new__(cls)
result.__dict__.update(self.__dict__)
return result
def __deepcopy__(self, memo):
cls = self.__class__
result = cls.__new__(cls)
memo[id(self)] = result
for k, v in self.__dict__.items():
setattr(result, k, deepcopy(v, memo))
return result
a = A()
a.v = 11
b1, b2 = copy(a), deepcopy(a)
a.v = 12
a.z.append(5)
print b1.v, b1.z
print b2.v, b2.z
prints
init
11 [2, 3, 4, 5]
11 [2, 3, 4]
here __deepcopy__ fills in the memo dict to avoid excess copying in case the object itself is referenced from its member.