Opening text files from a list within another text file using python

Question

I'm probably doing something very silly and basic, but I just can't get this bit of code to work. I have a text file that contains a list of more text files (log files) with the full path for them. I want to open the first file, grab the list and then open each in turn (ultimately to do a search within each for errors) and then close them. The problem I am having is that I can't get the data from the newly opened secondary files to display.

Text file 1 (logs.txt) :

//server-1/program/data/instances/devapp/log/audit.log

//server-2/program/data/instances/devapp/log/bizman.db.log

The code I am trying to run:

import os

logdir = '/cygdrive/c/bob/logs.txt'

load_log_file = open (logdir, 'r')
read_log_file = load_log_file.readlines ()

def txt_search (read_log_file) :
    for entry in read_log_file :
        view_entry = open (entry, 'a+wb')
        print view_entry

print txt_search (read_log_file)

The output looks like the following:

$ python log_4.py
<open file '//server-1/program/data/instances/devapp/log/audit.log
', mode 'a+wb' at 0xfff3c180>
<open file '//server-2/program/data/instances/devapp/log/bizman.db.log
', mode 'a+wb' at 0xfff3c1d8>
None

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I'm getting to the point of pulling my hair out!

Many thanks,

Bob

You are printing the file handle, and not the contents of the file itself. — Burhan Khalid
– Burhan Khalid, Commented May 15, 2013 at 7:32

Pep_8_Guardiola · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-15 07:38:04Z

2

You can do something like this:

logdir = r"/cygdrive/c/bob/logs.txt"

with open(logdir) as fin:
    for line in fin:
        with open(line.strip()) as log:
            print log.readlines()

If you want to print the files as seen, so without the surrounding brackets and other list markup, you can use the following line:

print "".join(log.readlines())

edited May 15, 2013 at 7:38

answered May 15, 2013 at 7:30

Pep_8_Guardiola

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1 Comment

Bob Howard Over a year ago

That's great! And I see where I was going wrong aswell! Big thanks for the answer, and to the others that replied too! :-)

SneedOverflow · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-15 07:35:07Z

1

If you want to display the contents of the file then use view_entry.read(). You're just referencing the object hence why you're getting that response.

C:\Users\brayden>python
Python 2.7.4 (default, Apr  6 2013, 19:54:46) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> f = open('test.txt', 'r')
>>> print f
<open file 'test.txt', mode 'r' at 0x003A6CD8>
>>> print f.read()
line1
line2
asdf

http://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/inputoutput.html#methods-of-file-objects

answered May 15, 2013 at 7:35

SneedOverflow

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Comments

MindObjects223 · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-15 07:33:49Z

0

The return type of open() is a file object. So when you print view_entry you are basically printing the description of the file object, not the content itself. Try this instead:

...
view_entry = open (entry, 'a+wb')
print (view_entry.readlines())
...

answered May 15, 2013 at 7:33

MindObjects223

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Comments

MrGumble · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-15 07:35:31Z

Your object view_entry refers to a file-object, not the contents of the file. Short answer, you need to read from the view_entry.

I would restructure the code as such:

def error_search(logfile):
  ''' 
  This function retrieves a file-object, that is readable.
  Searches for a line containing the substring "ERROR", and returns True if it finds it.
  '''
  for line in logfile:
    if 'ERROR' in line:
      return True
  return False

def txt_search (read_log_file) :
  for entry in read_log_file :
    view_entry = open(entry, 'r')
    if os.path.exists(entry):
      has_error = error_search(logfile)
    if has_error:
      print entry, "has error!"
    else:
      print entry, "is error-free."


txt_search (read_log_file)

I have also corrected the mode you are opening the file, as 'a+wb' does not make any sense for me (a is for appending, + for updating, w opens for writing and truncates the file, and b is for binary mode).

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