In Python, how should one extract the second-last directory name in a path?

'/cvmfs/atlas.cern.ch/repo/sw/ASG/AnalysisTop/2.0.24/RootCore'.split('/')[-2]

You can also do:

import os
x = "/cvmfs/atlas.cern.ch/repo/sw/ASG/AnalysisTop/2.0.24/RootCore"
os.path.split(os.path.split(x)[0])[1]

results in

'2.0.24'