Toolbox for working with the Python AST

pip install ast_tools

Useful References

• Green Tree Snakes - the missing Python AST docs

Passes

ast_tools provides a number of passes for rewriting function and classes (could also work at the module level however no such pass exists). Passes can be applied in one of two ways:

@apply_ast_passes([pass1(), pass2()])
def foo(...): ...

@end_rewrite()
@pass2()
@pass1()
@begin_rewrite()
def foo(...): ...

Each pass takes as arguments an AST, an environment, and metadata and returns (possibly) modified versions of each. apply_ast_pass and begin_rewrite begin a chain of rewrites by first looking up the ast of the decorated object and gather attempts to gather locals and globals from the call site to build the environment.

After all rewrites have run apply_ast_pass / end_rewrite serialize and execute the rewritten ast.

Know Issues

Collecting the AST

apply_ast_pass and begin_rewrite rely on inspect.getsource to get the source of the decorated definition (which is then parsed to get the initial ast). However, inspect.getsource has many limitations.

Collecting the Environment

apply_ast_pass and begin_rewrite do there best to infer the environment however there is no way to do this in a fully correct way. Users are encouraged to pass environment explicitly:

@apply_ast_passes(..., env=SymbolTable(locals(), globals()))
def foo(...): ...

@begin_rewrite(env=SymbolTable(locals(), globals()))
def foo(...): ...

Wrapping terminal passes

Terminal passes begin_rewrite / end_rewrite / apply_ast_passes must not be wrapped.

As decorators are a part of the AST of the object they are applied to they must be removed from the rewritten AST before it is executed. If they are not removed rewrites will recurse infinitely as

@apply_ast_passes([...])
def foo(...): ...

would become

exec('''\
@apply_ast_passes([...])
def rewritten_foo(...): ...
''')

Note: this would invoke apply_ast_passes([...]) on rewritten_foo

To avoid this the terminating pass filters itself (and other decorators in the rewrite group in the begin / end style) from the decorator list. If however the terminals are wrapped this filter will fail.

Inner decorators are called multiple times

Decorators that are applied before a rewrite group will be called multiple times. See https://github.com/leonardt/ast_tools/issues/46 for detailed explanation. To avoid this users are encouraged to make rewrites the inner most decorators when possible.

Macros

Loop Unrolling

Unroll loops using the pattern

for <var> in ast_tools.macros.unroll(<iter>):
    ...

<iter> should be an iterable object that produces integers (e.g. range(8)) that can be evaluated at definition time (can refer to variables in the scope of the function definition)

For example,

from ast_tools.passes import begin_rewrite, loop_unroll, end_rewrite

@end_rewrite()
@loop_unroll()
@begin_rewrite()
def foo():
    for i in ast_tools.macros.unroll(range(8)):
        print(i)

is rewritten into

def foo():
    print(0)
    print(1)
    print(2)
    print(3)
    print(4)
    print(5)
    print(6)
    print(7)

You can also use a list of ints, here's an example that also uses a reference to a variable defined in the outer scope:

from ast_tools.passes import begin_rewrite, loop_unroll, end_rewrite

j = [1, 2, 3]
@end_rewrite()
@loop_unroll()
@begin_rewrite()
def foo():
    for i in ast_tools.macros.unroll(j):
        print(i)

becomes

def foo():
    print(1)
    print(2)
    print(3)