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Unix Specific Services</a> »</li> </ul> </div> <div class="document"> <div class="documentwrapper"> <div class="bodywrapper"> <div class="body"> <div class="section" id="module-pipes"> <h1>36.11. <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">pipes</span></tt> — Interface to shell pipelines<a class="headerlink" href="#module-pipes" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1> <p><em>Platforms: </em>Unix</p> <p>The <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">pipes</span></tt> module defines a class to abstract the concept of a <em>pipeline</em> — a sequence of converters from one file to another.</p> <p>Because the module uses <strong>/bin/sh</strong> command lines, a POSIX or compatible shell for <a title="os.system" class="reference external" href="os.html#os.system"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.system()</span></tt></a> and <a title="os.popen" class="reference external" href="os.html#os.popen"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.popen()</span></tt></a> is required.</p> <p>The <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">pipes</span></tt> module defines the following class:</p> <dl class="class"> <dt id="pipes.Template"> <em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">pipes.</tt><tt class="descname">Template</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#pipes.Template" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>An abstraction of a pipeline.</dd></dl> <p>Example:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">pipes</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">t</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">pipes</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">Template</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">t</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">append</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'tr a-z A-Z'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'--'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">f</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">t</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'/tmp/1'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'w'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">f</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">write</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'hello world'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">f</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">close</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="nb">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'/tmp/1'</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">read</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="go">'HELLO WORLD'</span> </pre></div> </div> <div class="section" id="template-objects"> <span id="id1"></span><h2>36.11.1. Template Objects<a class="headerlink" href="#template-objects" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>Template objects following methods:</p> <dl class="method"> <dt id="pipes.Template.reset"> <tt class="descclassname">Template.</tt><tt class="descname">reset</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#pipes.Template.reset" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>Restore a pipeline template to its initial state.</dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="pipes.Template.clone"> <tt class="descclassname">Template.</tt><tt class="descname">clone</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#pipes.Template.clone" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>Return a new, equivalent, pipeline template.</dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="pipes.Template.debug"> <tt class="descclassname">Template.</tt><tt class="descname">debug</tt><big>(</big><em>flag</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#pipes.Template.debug" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>If <em>flag</em> is true, turn debugging on. Otherwise, turn debugging off. When debugging is on, commands to be executed are printed, and the shell is given <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">set</span> <span class="pre">-x</span></tt> command to be more verbose.</dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="pipes.Template.append"> <tt class="descclassname">Template.</tt><tt class="descname">append</tt><big>(</big><em>cmd</em>, <em>kind</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#pipes.Template.append" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Append a new action at the end. The <em>cmd</em> variable must be a valid bourne shell command. The <em>kind</em> variable consists of two letters.</p> <p>The first letter can be either of <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'-'</span></tt> (which means the command reads its standard input), <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'f'</span></tt> (which means the commands reads a given file on the command line) or <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'.'</span></tt> (which means the commands reads no input, and hence must be first.)</p> <p>Similarly, the second letter can be either of <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'-'</span></tt> (which means the command writes to standard output), <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'f'</span></tt> (which means the command writes a file on the command line) or <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'.'</span></tt> (which means the command does not write anything, and hence must be last.)</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="pipes.Template.prepend"> <tt class="descclassname">Template.</tt><tt class="descname">prepend</tt><big>(</big><em>cmd</em>, <em>kind</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#pipes.Template.prepend" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>Add a new action at the beginning. See <a title="pipes.Template.append" class="reference internal" href="#pipes.Template.append"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">append()</span></tt></a> for explanations of the arguments.</dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="pipes.Template.open"> <tt class="descclassname">Template.</tt><tt class="descname">open</tt><big>(</big><em>file</em>, <em>mode</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#pipes.Template.open" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>Return a file-like object, open to <em>file</em>, but read from or written to by the pipeline. Note that only one of <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'r'</span></tt>, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'w'</span></tt> may be given.</dd></dl> <dl class="method"> <dt id="pipes.Template.copy"> <tt class="descclassname">Template.</tt><tt class="descname">copy</tt><big>(</big><em>infile</em>, <em>outfile</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#pipes.Template.copy" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>Copy <em>infile</em> to <em>outfile</em> through the pipe.</dd></dl> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="sphinxsidebar"> <div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper"> <h3><a href="../contents.html">Table Of Contents</a></h3> <ul> <li><a class="reference external" href="#">36.11. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pipes</span></tt> — Interface to shell pipelines</a><ul> <li><a class="reference external" href="#template-objects">36.11.1. Template Objects</a></li> </ul> </li> </ul> <h4>Previous topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="fcntl.html" title="previous chapter">36.10. <tt class="docutils literal docutils literal"><span class="pre">fcntl</span></tt> — The <tt class="docutils literal docutils literal"><span class="pre">fcntl()</span></tt> and <tt class="docutils literal docutils literal"><span class="pre">ioctl()</span></tt> system calls</a></p> <h4>Next topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="posixfile.html" title="next chapter">36.12. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">posixfile</span></tt> — File-like objects with locking support</a></p> <h3>This Page</h3> <ul class="this-page-menu"> <li><a href="../_sources/library/pipes.txt" rel="nofollow">Show Source</a></li> </ul> <div id="searchbox" style="display: none"> <h3>Quick search</h3> <form class="search" action="../search.html" method="get"> <input type="text" name="q" size="18" /> <input type="submit" value="Go" /> <input type="hidden" name="check_keywords" value="yes" /> <input type="hidden" name="area" value="default" /> </form> <p class="searchtip" style="font-size: 90%"> Enter search terms or a module, class or function name. </p> </div> <script type="text/javascript">$('#searchbox').show(0);</script> </div> </div> <div class="clearer"></div> </div> <div class="related"> <h3>Navigation</h3> <ul> <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px"> <a href="../genindex.html" title="General Index" >index</a></li> <li class="right" > <a href="../modindex.html" title="Global Module Index" >modules</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="posixfile.html" title="36.12. posixfile — File-like objects with locking support" >next</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="fcntl.html" title="36.10. fcntl — The fcntl() and ioctl() system calls" >previous</a> |</li> <li><img src="../_static/py.png" alt="" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-top: -1px"/></li> <li><a href="../index.html">Python v2.6.5 documentation</a> »</li> <li><a href="index.html" >The Python Standard Library</a> »</li> <li><a href="unix.html" >36. 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