line break confusion

[Fernando Perez]

Michael Mell wrote:

> Using Python 2.2 running on any arbitrary OS (Linux, Win, Mac), I want
> to
>     1) read several files having an arbitrary mix of line break types
> (Linux, Win, Mac)
>     2) then standardize the breaks of each of the files to a single type
> and
>     3) then concatenate them all into a string for writing.

This is probably a useful start:

#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
def native_line_ends(file,backup=1):
    """Convert (in-place) a file to line-ends native to the current OS.

    If the optional backup argument is given as false, no backup of the
    original file is left.  """

    backup_suffixes = {'posix':'~','dos':'.bak','nt':'.bak','mac':'.bak'}

    bak_file = file + backup_suffixes[os.name]
    
    original = open(file).read()
    shutil.copy2(file,bak_file)
    try:
        new = open(file,'w')
        new.write(os.linesep.join(original.splitlines()))
        new.write(os.linesep) # ALWAYS put an eol at the end of the file
        new.close()
    except:
        os.rename(bak_file,file)
    if not backup:
        try:
            os.remove(bak_file)
        except:
            pass

Modify it to suit your needs.

Cheers,

f.