How to have automated headers for python files

Question

A proper header format in python is described here .

Using either VIM or a shell script, I would like to have the usual metadata (like __author__, __authors__, __contact__, __copyright__, __license__, __deprecated__, __date__ and __version__) added to the file header. SVN keywords would also be nice. Adding it to new files is the most relevant. Adding it to existing files is a bonus.

Ruslan's Blog has a solution for Emacs. But I was unable to find a solution for Python.

Where has this been done for python without Emacs? VIM can copy text from one file to another like so , but maybe there is a nicer way.

Answer 1

I highly recommend the snipMate plugin. You can easily add new snips per file type, and they're triggered by just typing a keyword and hitting tab, so for example you could just hit

header<TAB>

and all the fields would be added, and you can easily tab through any that require being filled out on a per-file basis. There is even already a snippet called docs in the built-in python snippets (vimfiles/snippets/python.snippets) that looks like it fills out similar metadata for docstrings which you could easily modify for your purposes, here it is as an example of the snip format:

# Module Docstring
snippet docs
    '''
    File: ${1:`Filename('$1.py', 'foo.py')`}
    Author: ${2:`g:snips_author`}
    Description: ${3}
    '''

Dynamic entries are supported using backticks in your snip (Filename and g:snips_author as the default for tabbable entries 1 and 2 above). The date could be added with:

`system("date +%Y-%m-%d")`

(from the snipMate help doc).

Answer 2

Here is my C++ files template:

/*****************************************************************************
 * @file <file_name>
 *
 * @date <date>
 * @author John Doe
 * @email jdoe@yourcompany.com
 *
 * @brief
 *
 * @detail
 *
 *****************************************************************************/

And here is what I have inside ~/.vimrc:

" Reads the template file replacing the tags by the actual
" information and insert the result at the beginning of the buffer. At
" the end, creates two blank lines at the end of the file and
" position the cursor at the first one.
function! s:insert_description()
    let template = $HOME . "/.vim/template/cpp.template"
    let file_name = expand("%:t") " Get file name without path
    let date = strftime("%Y") " Get the current year in format YYYY
    let i = 0
    for line in readfile(template)
        let line = substitute(line, "<file_name>", file_name, "ge")
        let line = substitute(line, "<date>", date, "ge")
        call append(i, line)
        let i += 1
    endfor
    execute "normal! Go\<Esc>k"
endfunction
autocmd BufNewFile *.{c++,cpp,cc,c,h,hpp} call <SID>insert_description()

Basically, I read the template file replacing the tags and with the actual information and insert the result at the beggining of the newly created file. The function s:insert_description() is called whenever vim created a new file. This is set by the autocmd at the last line.

You can base yourself at this code and create the equivalent for python.

Answer 3

Just go over to http://www.vim.org and search there for "new file template" and you'll get tons of plugins that solve this kind of problem, so look at them and pick one.