Linked to, but not explicitly mentioned here, is exactly when __all__ is used. It is a list of strings defining what symbols in a module will be exported when from <module> import * is used on the module.

For example, the following code in a foo.py explicitly exports the symbols bar and baz:

__all__ = ['bar', 'baz']

waz = 5
bar = 10
def baz(): return 'baz'

These symbols can then be imported like so:

from foo import *

print(bar)
print(baz)

# The following will trigger an exception, as "waz" is not exported by the module
print(waz)

If the __all__ above is commented out, this code will then execute to completion, as the default behaviour of import * is to import all symbols that do not begin with an underscore, from the given namespace.

Reference:

NOTE: __all__ affects the from <module> import * behavior only. Members that are not mentioned in __all__ are still accessible from outside the module and can be imported with from <module> import <member>.

Explain all in Python?

I keep seeing the variable __all__ set in different __init__.py files.

What does this do?

What does __all__ do?

It declares the semantically "public" names from a module. If there is a name in __all__, users are expected to use it, and they can have the expectation that it will not change.

It also will have programmatic effects:

import *

__all__ in a module, e.g. module.py:

__all__ = ['foo', 'Bar']

means that when you import * from the module, only those names in the __all__ are imported:

from module import *               # imports foo and Bar

Documentation tools

Documentation and code autocompletion tools may (in fact, should) also inspect the __all__ to determine what names to show as available from a module.