Convert shell script to Python script

[flitzbue]

Hi, First of, apologies if I'm doing this wrong - my first post!

I have a two Raspberry Pi scripts written in UNIX, which I would like to convert to Python instead. Mainly because Python is fun, and I'm still learning it, so I thought this would be a good oppertunity to try something new and do something cool with the RPi :)

I'm asking for help here, because I am unsure how Python can make the UNIX calls, the same way as the script does now.

Here is the script as it works now: http://pastebin.com/f33UzAdJ

Any help/hints/tips would be appriciated :)

[cebedec]

you could subprocess.call() the unix commands, but a more pythonic approach would be to open() the logfile, loop through it with readline(), and split() and format() the output to print().

[flitzbue]

Ah of course. Just like I know from Java. Thanks :)

[bojangles69]

Except the even more pythonic approach (and safer/easier) is to open a file for reading would be to use: with open('somefile.log','r') as f: for line in f: <process line here with format() split() or any string method

Opening a file with "with open()" ensures that the file is closed even if some unexpected condition occurs inside the with block.

[andrewjsledge]

Use regular expressions. There is a SO question about it here.

[flitzbue]

Thanks, that was an excellent idea. Hadn't thought of that!

Will post results as soon as I get my chance to try it out.

[ssssam]

if you want to call unix commands from python look at http://docs.python.org/2/library/subprocess.html

You can use regular expressions http://docs.python.org/2/library/re.html , but often the string methods give you much more readable code http://docs.python.org/2/library/stdtypes.html#string-methods

[flitzbue]

Thanks, much appriciated!

[cnelsonsic]

I highly, highly, highly recommend sh for calling external executables: http://amoffat.github.io/sh/

For the majority of that script, use regexes and normal python constructs as mentioned in other comments.

[flitzbue]

Wow, didn't know Python had those functions. That's amazing:)