Professional IronPython™

Chapter 10. Using IronPython for Administration Tasks

WHAT'S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Developing command line utilities

• Using and configuring the command line environment

• Using IronPython to script other command line applications

• Outputting status information from the command line

Administration occurs at many levels and for many different tasks. For example, many administrators today rely on graphical tools to accomplish tasks manually. As you saw in Chapters 8 and 9, you can use IronPython to create graphical applications. However, where IronPython excels is at the command line. You can create IronPython applications to perform a host of tasks at the command line quite quickly and with less effort than using many other languages. In addition, IronPython works well as a batch processor — a special kind of application that executes a list of commands normally found in a file.

Of course, some people feel the command line is dead — that no one uses it any longer. The converse is true. Many administrators have soured on the time-consuming nature of graphical utilities and now prefer the functionality provided by command line utilities, especially those designed to work in batch files. Microsoft is actually introducing a number of new applications that rely on the command line, such as latest versions of Exchange Server. In addition, Windows Server 2008 Server Core lacks a graphical environment (strictly speaking) and relies on the administrator's knowledge of command line tools for management tasks. ...