Mastering Python Scripting for System Administrators

Standard input and output

In this section, we are going to learn about input and output in Python. We will learn about stdin and stdout, and the input() function.

stdin and stdout are file-like objects. These objects are provided by the operating system. Whenever a user runs a program in an interactive session, stdin acts as input and stdout will be the user's Terminal. As stdin is a file-like object, we have to read the data from stdin rather than reading data at runtime. stdout is used for the output. It is used as an output for expressions and print() function, as well as a prompt for the input() function.

Now, we will see an example of stdin and stdout. For that purpose, create a script, stdin_stdout_example.py, and write the following ...