Get The Last Modification Time Of A File 
#
## get the modification time of a file
#
import os
mtime=os.path.getmtime(file)
# mtime is a float, need to do something to print it with a string
strmtime = str(mtime)       # can examine intermediate value
print ('mtime '+strmtime)


 Get the Size of a File 
#
## get the size of a file
#
import os
size=os.path.getsize(file)


 read input interactively 
#
## read input line into variable num
#
num = raw_input("Enter a number: ")   # Python 2.x
print("The number is: %s" % num)

 Read a File quickly into a variable 
#
## slurp a file -- read all of the bytes into variable buf
#
buf = open(file,'r').read()


 Get The Current Directory 
#
## get the current directory
#
import os
pwd = os.getcwd()


 Creating Directories 
#
## To avoid umask calculations, 
## save the current umask while setting the umask to 000, 
## make the directory, then set the umask back to what it had been
#
import os
newdir = "./new/"
if os.path.isdir(newdir):
    print "newdir exists"
else:
    try:
        original_umask = os.umask(0)
        os.makedirs(newdir, 0755)
    finally:
        os.umask(original_umask)


 Copy Files To The Directory 
# populate the dir
# copy2 preserves mtime, and dst can be a directory
import shutil
dst = newdir + file
shutil.copy2(file, dst)
dst = newdir + file + ".1"
shutil.copy2(file, dst)


 Read A Directory 
#
## read a directory $dir ( ignoring . and .. )
#
import os
files = os.listdir(newdir)


 Recursively Read a Directory 
#
## recursively read a directory, startdir finding all files
## at the end all directory names are in dirs, all files are in files
#
import os
dirs = []
files = []
dirs.append(startdir)
for dir in dirs:
    print('dir ' + dir)
    list = os.listdir(dir)
    for name in list:
        fullpath = dir + name
        print('fullpath ' + fullpath)
        if os.path.isdir(fullpath):
            print("is a dir")
            dirs.append(fullpath + '/')
        if os.path.isfile(fullpath):
            print("is a file")
            files.append(fullpath)


 Breaking out or "short circuiting" a loop 
#
## break out of a loop
#
import subprocess
cmd = ["/usr/sbin/dmidecode"]
proc = subprocess.Popen(cmd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
for line in proc.stdout.readlines():
    strippedline = line.rstrip()

    #Product Name: BladeCenter
    # strippedline.split(':')
    import re
    pattern = 'Product Name:'
    if re.search(pattern, strippedline):
        print strippedline
        name, var = strippedline.partition(":")[::2]
        print("var " + var)
        break


 Determining The PID of a Child Process 
#
## determining the PID of a child process
#
import subprocess
cmd = ["/usr/sbin/dmidecode"]
proc = subprocess.Popen(cmd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
pid = proc.pid
print(pid)


 get the loginID 
#
## get the loginID  (unix only)
#
import os
uid = os.getuid() 
import pwd
name = pwd.getpwuid(uid)[0] 
print("process owner is " + name)

#
## was it run via sudo?
#
try:
    user = os.environ['SUDO_USER']
except KeyError:
    # if not defined it thows a KeyError
    if  name == "root":
        user = name
    else:
        print "This script must be run via sudo!"
        exit


 get the hostname 
#
## get the hostname 
#
import socket
hostname = socket.gethostname()
print("hostname is %s" % hostname)


 concatenate the elements of an array, separated by $delimiter 
#
## concatenate the elements of an array, separated by $delimiter
#
delimiter = '-'
list = ['apple', 'cherry', 'pumpkin']
strlist = delimiter.join(list)
print("joined list: %s" % strlist)




 print using a "here" document 
#
## print using a "here" document -- print out html code without lots of quoting games
#
block = ("""
  <SCRIPT LANGUAGE=JAVASCRIPT>
  <!--
  document.write('<img src="/cgi-bin/get-img.cgi?'+document.referrer+'"alt="logo" height=103 width=419>')
  // -->
  </script>
  <NOSCRIPT>
  <img src="/cgi-bin/get-img.cgi?noscript" alt="logo" height=103 width=419>
  </NOSCRIPT>

""")
print(block.format(name = name))