Printing a "status " line from a python script

[Alex VanderWoude]

Chris Seymour wrote:
> I am working on a python script for my colleague that will walk a
> directory and search in the different files for a specific string.
> These pieces I am able to do.  What my colleague wants is that when
> she runs the script the filename is replaced by the current file that
> is being processed.  So instead of seeing a series of files being
> listed down the page, she only wants to see the file currently being
> processed.

You should know that printing "\b" issues a backspace.  You can couple 
this with printing without line endings using a trailing comma:

print "Now processing file",   # Trailing comma = no line ending
previous = ""
names = ["one", "two", "three"]
for name in names:
     if previous:
         print "\b" * (len(previous) + 2),   # Trailing comma again
     print name,   # Yet another trailing comma
     previous = name
     # Do whatever other processing you need here
print   # At last a line ending

Hope this helps.
- Alex