Just need some clarification on how to design a python script file test.py.
When defining functions, do they have to go on the top of the file right after the imports?
should I be doing that main check in my file?
I want to run this file on my server as a cron job. If the file gets too big (I have my sqlalchemy definitions in it also), how can I break the file into multiple files? I want this easy to deploy by just dropping the files into a folder in my server.
Most scripts look something like the following:
import module1
import module2
CONSTANT=...
def foo():
...
def bar():
....
class Baz():
....
def run(verbose=False):
....
if __name__=='__main__':
import optparse
def parse_options():
usage = 'usage: %prog [options]'
parser = optparse.OptionParser(usage=usage)
parser.add_option('-v', '--verbose', dest='verbose',
action='store_true',
default=False,
help="verbose")
return parser.parse_args()
def cli():
opt,args=parse_options()
run(verbose=opt.verbose)
cli()
So the body of your script is mainly composed of function/class definitions. There (usually) is very little code that isn't inside a function/class definition.
I would try to group the functions in whatever way facilitates organization and readability. If you believe a function can be reused in places other than that particular script, then place it in a module, and import that module into this script.
Define PYTHONPATH and PATH in your crontab. Then you should have no problem running your script from cron.
optparse module from the standard library to handle arguments from the command line. If you use Python2.7 or better, you might want to consider the argparse module which I believe is intended to replace optparse. I'll edit my answer to show the structure for optparse.