If a variable 'x' exists in the global or local scope, and a function (also defined in the same scope as 'x', or lower) refers only to a member named 'x' of an object, inspect.getclosurevars will include a reference to the variable, rather than the member.

Okay, that's kind of confusing to describe, so here's a small example in code form:

import inspect

class Foo:
    x = int()

x = 1
f = Foo()
assert(f.x != x)

func = lambda: f.x == 0
assert(func())

cv = inspect.getclosurevars(func)
assert(cv.globals['f'] == f)
assert(cv.globals.get('x') != x) # <--- Assertion fails


It is expected that 'x' would not exist in cv.globals, since func does not refer to it. Also, there should be a 'f.x' included somewhere in the ClosureVariables object returned.