Mastering Linux Shell Scripting - Second Edition

Using Python as a Bash Scripting Alternative

In the previous chapter, we saw a practical example of using AWK and we saw how to process lastlog output to produce better reports. In this chapter, we will take a look at another scripting alternative for bash. We will talk about Python. Python is another scripting language and the newest that we have looked at so far. Similar to bash, Python is an interpreted language and makes use of the shebang. Although it does not have a shell interface, we can access a console called REPL where we can type Python code to interact with the system. In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

• What is Python?
• Saying Hello World the Python way
• Pythonic arguments
• Significant whitespace
• Reading user ...