Some python questions (building cgi website)

[Matt Goodall]

paul h wrote:

>hi there,
>i'm learning to use python for cgi, and i've hit a few road blocks.
>basically, i need to know how to achieve the following things using
>python, on linux.
>create a new directory, and sub-directory.
>so if the user inputs "HELLO", i can create a dir called HELLO, and
>then some other dirs in there.
>  
>
See os.mkdir() or os.makedirs().

Please be *very* careful letting users access the file system in this 
way. Consider the situation where the user enters "/HELLO", 
"../../HELLO" etc - they could do all sorts of damage! You should 
probably restrict directory creation to a certain area of the file 
system. os.path.normpath() can be useful in working out what the user's 
input really means.

>i also need to know how i can write various things into a file.
>the following doesnt seem to work for me:
>file.write("TEXT HERE")
>how can i write plain text into a file?
>  
>
Unless you have created an object reference called file then file is 
actually a builtin for *opening* a file, or rather for creating a file 
object.

This is probably what you want:

    file('thefile.txt','wt').write('TEXT HERE')

or better still

    f = file('thefile.txt','wt')
    try:
        f.write('TEXT HERE')
    finally:
        if f:
            f.close()

which will ensure the file is closed correctly.

Cheers, Matt

-- 
Matt Goodall, Pollenation Internet Ltd
w: http://www.pollenation.net
e: matt at pollenation.net