Extracting values from Python sourcefile variables

[Paebbels]

I like that you extract information like author, version, etc. from a single source file.

Lately I came across this approach used in sphinxcontrib.autoprogram:

with open(os.path.join('..', 'setup.py')) as _f:
    _setup_ast = ast.parse(_f.read(), _f.name)
del _f
# The full version, including alpha/beta/rc tags.
release = next(
    node.value.s
    for node in ast.walk(_setup_ast)
    if (isinstance(node, ast.Assign) and len(node.targets) == 1 and
        isinstance(node.targets[0], ast.Name) and
        node.targets[0].id == 'version' and isinstance(node.value, ast.Str))
)

They use the ast (abstract syntax tree) package from Python to scan for a variable called version. I think this is a more elegant solution and more robust.

[Paebbels]

This code snippet could be used e.g. in #18