Python a good thing for sysadmins ?

[Steve Lamb]

On Thu, 6 Sep 2001 21:14:08 +0200, Aurelien <aurelien at fractals.be> wrote:
>I'd like to know if Python could be used for system administration. And 
>if there are people out there who use it for that. I noted for instance 
>that there were no SIG relating to this topic...

    Given the choice I'd use Python, even for "simple" tasks that "aught" to
be done in shell.  I've run into too many cases in shell where the fork/exec
of every little operation killed the speed of the script.  I've also hit many
instances where something that I could readily to in Perl or Python I simply
could not figure out how to do in shell and found it simpler to just rewrite
the script, from scratch, in Perl (at work) or Python (at home).

    Personally I'm in love with the idea of Python scripts also being libaries
to other scripts with a minimal amount of effort.  Esp. when it comes to a
large set of scripts that need to be called both manually and automatically.
I much prefer having true exception handling than passing status back and
forth through shell.

-- 
         Steve C. Lamb         | I'm your priest, I'm your shrink, I'm your
         ICQ: 5107343          | main connection to the switchboard of souls.
    To email: Don't despair!   |  -- Lenny Nero, Strange Days
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