How to get the current script's code in Python?

Question

I want to get the current script as a string in a variable in Python.

I found two sub-optimal ways, but I hope there is a better solution. I found:

The inspect import has a getsource method, but that only returns the code of one function (or class or whatever), but not the entire script. I can't find a way to pass the object of the entire script to getsource.
I could find the file location of the script file using __file__ or sys.argv[0] and open it to read. But this seems too indirect to me.

So: is there a (better) way to access the entire script as a string?

If relevant: I'd prefer a Python 2.7 solution above a 3.x.

Not quite the same it seems, and the answers provided don't really show how to access the script's own code, but rather, the code of other scripts. — Will
– Will, Commented Dec 28, 2015 at 11:00
@jonrsharpe: I had the same question. In my case, I have a data processing script that dumps the results to a file, and I'd like to record exactly /how/ it does it together with the results. — user66081
– user66081, Commented Dec 2, 2017 at 8:11

Will · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-28 11:07:49Z

18

Try:

import inspect
import sys

print inspect.getsource(sys.modules[__name__])

Or even:

import inspect
import sys

lines = inspect.getsourcelines(sys.modules[__name__])[0]

for index, line in enumerate(lines):
    print "{:4d} {}".format(index + 1, line)

The file the code is contained inside is considered to be a Python "module", and sys.modules[__name__] returns a reference to this module.

Edit

Or even, as @ilent2 suggested, like this, without the need of the sys module:

import inspect

print inspect.getsource(inspect.getmodule(inspect.currentframe()))

edited Dec 28, 2015 at 11:07

answered Dec 28, 2015 at 10:47

Will

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2 Comments

ilent2 Over a year ago

Or, with fewer imports but perhaps less readable: inspect.getsource(inspect.getmodule(inspect.currentframe()))

user202729 Over a year ago

Remark: there's one case where it's buggy, it's the main file loaded in the zip file linecache cannot get source for the main module with a custom loader · Issue #86291 · python/cpython

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