recording data between [ and ]

[Peter Hansen]

rbt wrote:
> Output from 'netstat -b' on a win2003 server will show what binary is 
> responsible for the connection. For example, it may list something like 
> this along with other connection specific data:
> 
> [lsass.exe]
> [System]
> [firefox.exe]
> [iexplorer.exe]
> 
> How might I process the output so that anything within brackets is 
> recorded to a log file of my own making? I know how to parse and record 
> things to a file, I don't know how to look make '[' and ']' appear as 
> special characters so that I can record what's between them.

Does this help?

 >>> import re
 >>>
 >>> s = '''stuff   [lsass.exe]
... [System]  more stuff
... xxxxx [firefox.exe] ......
... '''
 >>>
 >>> re.findall(r'\[([^]]*)\]', s)
['lsass.exe', 'System', 'firefox.exe']

-Peter