applying a filter to all files in a directory

[Tom Bryan]

Tomasz Lukasiak wrote:

>     i have a question to which i'm sure there is a simple answer, but i
> couldn't find any references.  i've written a program that converts a
> file from one format to another.  now, i'd like to write a python script
> that, when given a directory name, will apply this converter program to
> all the files in the specified directory.  what is the best way to do
> this?  i'm using a UNIX machine, but am unsure how to use the Python
> file manipulation libraries.

Assuming you mean all of the files in that directory or its 
subdirectories...

>From outside of Python, something like this should work.
$ find directory-name -type f -exec converter.py \{\} \;

>From within Python, it sounds like you might want to use os.path.walk.

Python 1.5.1 (#3, Mar  7 1999, 20:11:49)  [GCC 2.7.2] on sunos5
Copyright 1991-1995 Stichting Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam
>>> import os
>>> print os.path.walk.__doc__
walk(top,func,args) calls func(arg, d, files) for each directory "d" 
in the tree  rooted at "top" (including "top" itself).  "files" is a 
list of all the files and subdirs in directory "d".
 
Otherwise, you might want to do something like os.listdir from 
an importing module and call the function manually in a loop.

-- 
tbryan at zarlut.utexas.edu
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