When I'm too lazy to find API documentation I just read the source code. To make this slightly easier in Python, here's what I use in my ~/.${SHELL}rc:
cdp () { cd "$(python -c "import os.path as _, ${1}; \ print _.dirname(_.realpath(${1}.__file__[:-1]))" )" }
For packages, this takes you to the corresponding source directory:
$ cdp twisted.web $ pwd /usr/share/pyshared/twisted/web $ ls _auth/ domhelpers.py html.py iweb.py resource.py [..]
The realpath and [:-1] hackery follow any python-support symlinks. For "standalone" .py (or .so) modules, cdp will take you to the directory it resides in:
$ cdp subprocess $ pwd /usr/lib/python2.5 $ ls subprocess.py subprocess.py
This is a really sweet command, very very nice!
Why not use ipython?
import subprocess
subprocess??
That doesn't work so well for packages (try with "email") and I would prefer to use grep than search inside a pager. Also, more typing. — lamby
I'd use imp.find_module to find the location over explicitly importing it, but that's just personal preference.
So cool and so useful. Many thanks for the knowledge, many, many thanks.
Quite a few Django modules fail on import, here is a version that uses imp instead of import
cdp () {
cd "$(python -c "import sys, imp, os
path = sys.path
for i in '${1}'.split('.'): path = [imp.find_module(i,path)[1],]
path = path[0] if os.path.isdir(path[0]) else os.path.dirname(path[0])
print path")"
}