Where is quote (again)?

[N Becker]

nbecker at fred.net (N Becker) wrote in message news:<1f5252d4.0203080721.3bfc5c14 at posting.google.com>...
> Back in 1999, I asked "where is quote?".  I was looking for
> a way to quote a function (delay evaluation).
> 
> I wonder if there is anything new.  It looks to me that the 
> best answer is to use lambda.
> 
> example:
> 
> def f():
>   return lambda: os.chmod(""/root/.rhosts", 0644)
> 
> def g():
>   f()

A little background.  I'm writing a script that customizes my Linux
machine installations.  The script has a function that executes
commands.
Each command is a list.  Each element of the list is a string
or a function.
The current setup is, if a command is a string it is sent to
commands.getstatusoutput.  Some commands can be directly executed by
the python
interpreter.  In that case the command is a function and is directly
called.

This is basically the outline of the script:

run a command
def runcommand (cmd):
    print "command: ", cmd
    (status, output) = commands.getstatusoutput (cmd)
#    print "status, output: " , (status, output)
    if (int (status) != 0):
        print "command failed: ", cmd, output
    return int (status)

#run a command and record result
def runandlog (func):
    commandlist = func()
    for command in commandlist:
        if inspect.isfunction (command):
            command()
        else:
            status = runcommand (command)
    return status

def rootaccess():
    return ['some command deleted',
            'another command not shown here', 
            lambda: os.chmod ("/root/.rhosts", 0644)
            ]

dolist = [rootaccess, stuff deleted...]

for thing in dolist:
       status = runandlog (thing)

As you see "dolist" is a list of functions to execute.  Each function
returns a list of commands.  In the case that a command is a function
to be executed by the python interpreter, the function has to be
quoted.
The best Python mechanism I could find is lambda.  Is there a better
way?