Is Python as capable as Perl for sysadmin work?

[Roy Smith]

In article <pan.2005.02.08.04.01.16.605059 at yahooz.com>,
 "John M. Gabriele" <john_sips_teaz at yahooz.com> wrote:

> I recently posted this sort of question to the c.l.p.m but
> didn't get much of a response. I know a little Perl and a
> little Python, but master neither at the moment.
> 
> I see that Python is a general purpose OO programming language
> that finds use among some system administrators, but my guess
> is that Perl is still more common in that area than Python.
> 
> For sysadmin-related tasks, is Python as useful as Perl, or
> does it get clumsy when often dealing with the stuff admins
> deal with on a regular basis?
> 
> At some point during some dingy job in the back boiler room
> of Unix, would you find yourself saying, "geez, I'd wish I
> started this with Perl -- Python just isn't cutting it." ?
> 
> Thanks,
> ---J

Given that Perl was *designed* for sysadmin work, it's not surprising that 
there are some features of it which make it very convenient to use in that 
arena.  For executing external commands, nothing really comes close to 
Perl's back-tick syntax.  For doing things like reading a sequence a files 
and filtering the combined contents with regular expressions, Perl is 
probably the tool that lets you do that in the most compact way.

As a general-purpose programming language, it sucks.  My personal opinion 
is that the general-purpose suckitude outweighs the domain-specific 
sysadmin convenience.