I have cleaned up the documentation for the scriptutil module which is available on the web now. If you happen to run ubuntu you can also install it as a package straight from my PPA.
Please have a look at this tutorial in case you’re interested in scriptutil usage examples.
Enjoy!
Due to “popular demand” I have added a feature to the scriptutil.ffindgrep() function of the scriptutil.py module: you can now instruct it to display the line numbers for the lines found (similar to grep -n).
Please note: the examples below operate on the django project source code tree as usual.
What follows is a brief demonstration of the scriptutil.ffindgrep() function showing how one can search with and without line numbers respectively.
I am first searching with line numbers turned off. The results are displayed on lines 10-15 and 18-23 respectively.
1 Python 2.4.4 (#1, May 22 2007, 13:30:14) 2 [GCC 4.0.1 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 5367)] on darwin 3 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. 4 >>> import scriptutil as SU 5 >>> flist = SU.ffindgrep('.', 6 ... shellglobs=('README*', 'AUTH*'), 7 ... namefs=(lambda s: '.svn' not in s,), 8 ... regexl=('Django', 'doc')) 9 >>> flist 10 {'./django/contrib/redirects/README.TXT': 11 ' * The file django/docs/redirects.txt in the Django distribution', 12 './django/contrib/flatpages/README.TXT': 13 ' * The file docs/flatpages.txt in the Django distribution', 14 './README': 15 ' * First, read docs/install.txt for instructions on installing Django.'} 16 17 >>> SU.printr(flist) 18 * First, read docs/install.txt for instructions on installing Django. 19 ./README 20 * The file docs/flatpages.txt in the Django distribution 21 ./django/contrib/flatpages/README.TXT 22 * The file django/docs/redirects.txt in the Django distribution 23 ./django/contrib/redirects/README.TXT
Now I am passing an additional parameter (namely linenums) to the scriptutil.ffindgrep() function (line 28).
The added parameter (unsurprisingly) turns on the line numbers as can be seen on lines 30-35 and 37-42 respectively.
24 >>> flist = SU.ffindgrep('.', 25 ... shellglobs=('README*', 'AUTH*'), 26 ... namefs=(lambda s: '.svn' not in s,), 27 ... regexl=('Django', 'doc'), 28 ... linenums=True) 29 >>> flist 30 {'./django/contrib/redirects/README.TXT': 31 '5: * The file django/docs/redirects.txt in the Django distribution', 32 './django/contrib/flatpages/README.TXT': 33 '5: * The file docs/flatpages.txt in the Django distribution', 34 './README': 35 '8: * First, read docs/install.txt for instructions on installing Django.'} 36 >>> SU.printr(flist) 37 8: * First, read docs/install.txt for instructions on installing Django. 38 ./README 39 5: * The file docs/flatpages.txt in the Django distribution 40 ./django/contrib/flatpages/README.TXT 41 5: * The file django/docs/redirects.txt in the Django distribution 42 ./django/contrib/redirects/README.TXT
For more detail on the scriptutil.ffindgrep() function please see also an earlier article.
One of the big benefits of making code available publicly is the feedback received. Sometimes, the feedback points to python standard library modules I was unaware of.
A case in point is a post on Linux Questions in which the author is pointing out the fileinput module.
Python indeed comes with the batteries included🙂
I will have a more thorough look at the fileinput module and probably refactor the scriptutil.freplace() function (described here) to make use of it.
In the article that follows I will show how the scriptutil.py module (syntax highlighted code here) can be used
The examples below all operate on the django project source code tree.
In the following example I am using the scriptutil.ffind() function to find files that start either with 'README*' or 'AUTH*' (line 6 below). On the subsequent line a helper function is invoked to pretty-print the search results which are then displayed on lines 8-17.
1 Python 2.4.4 (#1, May 9 2007, 11:05:23) 2 [GCC 4.0.1 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 5367)] on darwin 3 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. 4 >>> import scriptutil as SU 5 >>> import re 6 >>> flist = SU.ffind('.', shellglobs=('README*', 'AUTH*')) 7 >>> SU.printr(flist) 8 ./.svn/text-base/AUTHORS.svn-base 9 ./.svn/text-base/README.svn-base 10 ./AUTHORS 11 ./README 12 ./django/contrib/flatpages/.svn/text-base/README.TXT.svn-base 13 ./django/contrib/flatpages/README.TXT 14 ./django/contrib/redirects/.svn/text-base/README.TXT.svn-base 15 ./django/contrib/redirects/README.TXT 16 ./extras/.svn/text-base/README.TXT.svn-base 17 ./extras/README.TXT
In most cases I will not be interested in any files that are internal to the subversion revision control system (lines 8, 9, 12, 14 and 16). Hence the filter function on line 19 (below) that rids me of these.
18 >>> flist = SU.ffind('.', shellglobs=('README*', 'AUTH*'), 19 ... namefs=(lambda s: '.svn' not in s,)) 20 >>> flist 21 ['./README', './AUTHORS', './django/contrib/flatpages/README.TXT', 22 './django/contrib/redirects/README.TXT', './extras/README.TXT'] 23 >>> SU.printr(flist) 24 ./AUTHORS 25 ./README 26 ./django/contrib/flatpages/README.TXT 27 ./django/contrib/redirects/README.TXT 28 ./extras/README.TXT
As we can see on lines 24-28 the subversion-internal files are not part of the result set any more.
The example above also points out how shell-style wildcards operate on file names whereas the filter functions passed through the 'namefs' parameter match on the file path.
Please note: this article provides slightly more detail and additional scriptutil.ffind() examples you may want to explore.
The brief scriptutil.ffindgrep() example below shows how one can search inside the files found.
29 >>> flist = SU.ffindgrep('.', shellglobs=('README*', 'AUTH*'), 30 ... namefs=(lambda s: '.svn' not in s,), 31 ... regexl=(('Django', re.I), 'dist')) 32 >>> flist 33 {'./django/contrib/redirects/README.TXT': 34 ' * The file django/docs/redirects.txt in the Django distribution', 35 './django/contrib/flatpages/README.TXT': 36 ' * The file docs/flatpages.txt in the Django distribution'} 37 >>> SU.printr(flist) 38 * The file docs/flatpages.txt in the Django distribution 39 ./django/contrib/flatpages/README.TXT 40 * The file django/docs/redirects.txt in the Django distribution 41 ./django/contrib/redirects/README.TXT
The 'regexl' parameter (see line 31 above) contains two search items:
The results returned by the function are displayed on lines 33-36 and pretty-printed on lines 38-41 respectively. For more detail on the scriptutil.ffindgrep() function please see one of my previous articles.
Last but not least here’s an example of how the scriptutil.freplace() function can be utilised to search for strings in files and substitute them.
The 'regexl' parameter (passed on line 44 below) is a sequence of 3-tuples, each having the following elements:
The 'bext' parameter specified on the subsequent line is the file name suffix to be used for backup copies of the modified files.
42 >>> flist = SU.freplace('.', shellglobs=('README*',), 43 ... namefs=(lambda s: '.svn' not in s,), 44 ... regexl=(('distribution', '**package**', None),), 45 ... bext='.bakk')
The function call above will search all occurence of the string 'distribution' and replace them with the string '**package**'. Please note that only files that passed the name filters (specified on lines 43-44) will be considered.
By searching for the backup files (line 46) we can see that the function call above resulted in two modified files.
46 >>> flist = SU.ffind('.', shellglobs=('*.bakk',)) 47 >>> SU.printr(flist) 48 ./django/contrib/flatpages/README.TXT.bakk 49 ./django/contrib/redirects/README.TXT.bakk
Finally, I am searching for the replacement string '**package**' (line 50) to check that the substitution worked.
50 >>> flist = SU.ffindgrep('.', regexl=('\\*\\*package\\*\\*',)) 51 >>> SU.printr(flist) 52 * The file docs/flatpages.txt in the Django **package** 53 ./django/contrib/flatpages/README.TXT 54 * The file django/docs/redirects.txt in the Django **package** 55 ./django/contrib/redirects/README.TXT
Again, I hope you liked this (brief) overview of the scriptutil.py module. Just in case that more detailed documentation is required I would like to mention that the functions presented above are documented quite extensively through documentation strings. Please check these out in the syntax highlighted source.
This is the second article in the file find, grep and in-place search/substitute series. It presents the scriptutil.ffindgrep() function that not only helps you find files but also allows you to search inside them.
In order to play with the scriptutil.py module (syntax highlighted code here) and I will use the same test data as in my previous article i.e. the following example directory tree:
bbox33:scriptutil $ find .
.
./a
./a/a.txt
./a/b
./a/b/b.txt
./a/b/c
./a/b/c/c.txt
./all.doc
./d
./d/d.txt
./d/e
./d/e/e.txt
./o
./o/o.txt
./o/p
./o/p/p.txt
./o/p/q
./o/p/q/q.txt
./o/p/q/r
./o/p/q/r/r.txt
./o/p/q/r/s
./o/p/q/r/s/s.txt
The text files in the tree above were populated with (random) content using the fortune program. The complete test data set may be viewed here.
Now let’s explore the scriptutil.ffindgrep() function and look at examples of how it can be put to good use.
1 bbox33:scriptutil $ python 2 Python 2.4.4 (#1, May 9 2007, 11:05:23) 3 [GCC 4.0.1 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 5367)] on darwin 4 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. 5 >>> import scriptutil as SU 6 >>> import re 7 >>> flist = SU.ffindgrep('.', 8 ... namefs=(lambda s: s.endswith('.txt'),), 9 ... regexl=('there',)) 10 >>> flist 11 {'./a/a.txt': "\\tIt's the only even prime, therefore it's odd. QED.", 12 './o/p/q/q.txt': 'there."'} 13 >>> SU.printr(flist) 14 It's the only even prime, therefore it's odd. QED. 15 ./a/a.txt 16 there." 17 ./o/p/q/q.txt
On lines 7-9 (above) the scriptutil.ffindgrep() function is invoked with the following parameters:
'.')namefs) to use for filtering the files we want (in this instance just a single function that makes sure we’re looking at text files only)
regular expressions (regexl) to filter the contents of the files that passed the name tests (in this example just a single regex picking lines containing the string ‘there’)The function’s return value is stored in the flist dictionary whose content is shown on lines 11-12. On the next line the scriptutil.printr() helper function is invoked to pretty-print the find results (lines 14-17).
As you can see two text files were found to contain lines with the string of interest.
Please note also how the scriptutil.ffindgrep() function returned a dictionary where each
What if we wanted to look for lines that contain the string ‘there’ as above but do it in a case insensitive way?
This is precisely what I am doing in the example below.
18 >>> flist = SU.ffindgrep('.', 19 ... namefs=(lambda s: s.endswith('.txt'),), 20 ... regexl=(('there', re.I),)) 21 >>> flist 22 {'./o/p/q/q.txt': 'there."', 23 './a/a.txt': "\\tIt's the only even prime, therefore it's odd. QED.", 24 './d/e/e.txt': '\\tThere are never enough hours in a day, but always too many days'} 25 >>> SU.printr(flist) 26 It's the only even prime, therefore it's odd. QED. 27 ./a/a.txt 28 There are never enough hours in a day, but always too many days 29 ./d/e/e.txt 30 there." 31 ./o/p/q/q.txt
Please note how the regexl parameter on line 20 now contains a 2-tuple with a regex definition string ('there') and a regex compilation flag (re.I) respectively.
Due to the fact that we are ignoring the letter case an additional match is found and displayed on lines 28-29 above.
What follows below is a slightly more advanced example since it uses more than one match pattern (see line 34).
Because the lines we are interested in must satisfy an additional regular expression ('eve') the match shown on lines 30-31 above is gone.
32 >>> flist = SU.ffindgrep('.', 33 ... namefs=(lambda s: s.endswith('.txt'),), 34 ... regexl=(('there', re.I), 'eve')) 35 >>> flist 36 {'./a/a.txt': "\\tIt's the only even prime, therefore it's odd. QED.", 37 './d/e/e.txt': '\\tThere are never enough hours in a day, but always too many days'} 38 >>> SU.printr(flist) 39 It's the only even prime, therefore it's odd. QED. 40 ./a/a.txt 41 There are never enough hours in a day, but always too many days 42 ./d/e/e.txt
Please note:
regexl parameter (e.g. on line 34 above) may contain both a simple string (with a regex definition) or a tuple (with parameters accepted by re.compile()).scriptutil.ffindgrep() function matches on a line by line basis): re.S, re.MLast but not least, I would like to show an example with multiple file name and file content filters: the second function in the namefs tuple (see line 44) now rules out any files with the letter ‘a’ in their path.
43 >>> flist = SU.ffindgrep('.', 44 ... namefs=(lambda s: s.endswith('.txt'), lambda s: 'a' not in s), 45 ... regexl=(('there', re.I), 'eve')) 46 >>> flist 47 {'./d/e/e.txt': '\\tThere are never enough hours in a day, but always too many days'} 48 >>> SU.printr(flist) 49 There are never enough hours in a day, but always too many days 50 ./d/e/e.txt
Since files with the letter ‘a’ in their path are not acceptable any more the match shown for the text file ./a/a.txt on lines 39-40 above has disappeared.
I hope you liked this introduction to the scriptutil.ffindgrep() function and will find the latter to be a worthy addition to your Python toolchest.
In the next article I will present the scriptutil.freplace() function that not only helps you find files but also allows you to search and replace strings inside these.
The scriptutil.py module was refactored and does not require python2.5 any more. It will work perfectly fine with an earlier python release (e.g. 2.4) as well.
The scriptutil.freplace() function was previously using the functools module to curry the regex subn function. The new version is achieving the same effect without using functools.
This is the first article in a series that describes file find, grep and in-place search/substitute tools for Python.
As described in my previous article I find myself often in a situation where I need to
All of this is reasonably straightforward when using UNIX shell commands like find or Perl.
However, I want this kind of functionality available while programming in Python, my favourite programming language.
In this article I am covering the first use case (searching for files in a directory tree).
In order to play with the scriptutil.py module (syntax highlighted code here) and to demonstrate some of its capabilities I have set up the following example directory tree:
bbox33:scriptutil $ find .
.
./a
./a/a.txt
./a/b
./a/b/b.txt
./a/b/c
./a/b/c/c.txt
./all.doc
./d
./d/d.txt
./d/e
./d/e/e.txt
./o
./o/o.txt
./o/p
./o/p/p.txt
./o/p/q
./o/p/q/q.txt
./o/p/q/r
./o/p/q/r/r.txt
./o/p/q/r/s
./o/p/q/r/s/s.txt
The text files were populated with (random) content using the fortune program. The complete test data set may be viewed here.
As a “warm-up exercise” we’ll start looking at a few usage examples of the scriptutil.ffind() function.
1 bbox33:scriptutil $ python2.5 2 Python 2.5.1 (r251:54863, May 14 2007, 09:23:46) 3 [GCC 4.0.1 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 5367)] on darwin 4 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. 5 >>> import scriptutil as SU 6 >>> import re 7 >>> files = SU.ffind('.', namefs=(re.compile('[a-d]\\.txt$').search,)) 8 >>> files 9 ['./a/a.txt', './a/b/b.txt', './a/b/c/c.txt', './d/d.txt'] 10 >>> SU.printr(files) 11 ./a/a.txt 12 ./a/b/b.txt 13 ./a/b/c/c.txt 14 ./d/d.txt
On line 7 (above) I am invoking the scriptutil.ffind() function and passing the fllowing paremeters to it:
'.')namefs) to use for filtering the files we want; in this instance I am passing just one function which merely encapsulates a regular expression.The function’s return value is stored in the files list whose content is shown on line 9. On the next line the scriptutil.printr() helper function is invoked to pretty-print the find results (lines 11-14).
In the example below I am adding one more filter function to the namefs tuple (line 16). That second function effectively weeds out any file path that contains the letter ‘b’.
15 >>> files = SU.ffind('.', namefs=(re.compile('[a-d]\\.txt$').search, 16 ... lambda s: s.find('b') == -1)) 17 >>> files 18 ['./a/a.txt', './d/d.txt'] 19 >>> SU.printr(files) 20 ./a/a.txt 21 ./d/d.txt
Hint: when working with a source code tree I would often use the following file name filter function to ignore any files internal to the subversion versioning system:
lambda s: s.find('.svn') == -1
In the next article I will present the scriptutil.ffindgrep() function that not only helps you find files but also allows you to search inside them.
