gistfile1.txt

% cat main.py
from config import config, set_config, print_config

print "1: %s" % (config)
set_config({'hello': 'world'})
print "3: %s" % (config)
print_config()

% cat config.py
config = None

def set_config(new_config):
    global config
    config = new_config
    print "2: %s" % config

def print_config():
    print "4: %s" % config

% python main.py
1: None
2: {'hello': 'world'}
3: None
4: {'hello': 'world'}

Line 3 above should be {'hello': 'world'}. I have no idea why it's not. Anyone know?

It's beyond import confusion. when you assign config with new_config you're replacing the old config with a new object id. To fix it do config.py like so:

config = {}

def set_config(new_config):
    global config
    config.update(new_config)
    print "2: %s" % config

def print_config():
    print "4: %s" % config

Just to be clear, I do not want to write:

config.config

I want to just be able to write config and have it work. Thanks to Dan I think I at least know what the problem is now. :)