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

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.