Book Image

Mastering Python Scripting for System Administrators

By : Ganesh Sanjiv Naik
Book Image

Mastering Python Scripting for System Administrators

By: Ganesh Sanjiv Naik

Overview of this book

Python has evolved over time and extended its features in relation to every possible IT operation. Python is simple to learn, yet has powerful libraries that can be used to build powerful Python scripts for solving real-world problems and automating administrators' routine activities. The objective of this book is to walk through a series of projects that will teach readers Python scripting with each project. This book will initially cover Python installation and quickly revise basic to advanced programming fundamentals. The book will then focus on the development process as a whole, from setup to planning to building different tools. It will include IT administrators' routine activities (text processing, regular expressions, file archiving, and encryption), network administration (socket programming, email handling, the remote controlling of devices using telnet/ssh, and protocols such as SNMP/DHCP), building graphical user interface, working with websites (Apache log file processing, SOAP and REST APIs communication, and web scraping), and database administration (MySQL and similar database data administration, data analytics, and reporting). By the end of this book, you will be able to use the latest features of Python and be able to build powerful tools that will solve challenging, real-world tasks
Table of Contents (21 chapters)

Handling Files, Directories, and Data

The system administrator performs tasks such as handling various files, directories, and data. In this chapter, we will learn about the os module. The os module provides the functionality to interact with the operating system. Python programmers can easily use this os module for performing file and directory operations. The os module provides tools for programmers that deal with files, paths, directories, and data.

In this chapter, you will learn about the following:

  • Using the os module to work with directories
  • Copying, moving, renaming, and deleting data
  • Working with paths, directories, and files
  • Comparing data
  • Merging data
  • Pattern matching files and directories
  • Metadata: data about data
  • Compressing and restoring
  • Using a tarfile module to create TAR archives
  • Using a tarfile module to examine the contents of TAR files
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