is there a way to view the source of a module from within the python console?

Question

if I'm in the python console and I want to see how a particular module works, is there an easy way to dump the source?

Answer 1

Maybe

print open('mymodule.py').read()

?

See file.read().

Answer 2

Some of the methods of inspect module are well-suited for this purpose:

import module
import inspect
src = inspect.getsource(module)

Answer 3

Using IPython, you can do this:

In [1]: import pyparsing
In [2]: pyparsing.Word??

...and the source will be displayed, if possible. I guess this must use inspect under the hood, but the added convenience of ? / ?? is fantastic.