I have a specific folder in which I download certain .zip files. I am writing a python script to automate the unzip, upload, and deletion of files from this folder. Is there a way to automatically trigger my python script each time a zip file is downloaded to this folder?
[EDIT] : i am on osx mavericks, sorry for not mentioning this from the start
Yes, you can use inotify (e.g. using pyinotify) to get a callback whenever a new file is created. It is not available on Windows though. There might be a similar api available, but I don't know if there are python bindings for that API.
The easiest way I can think of:
Make a cronjob lets say every 1 minute, that launches a script to check the directory in question for any new zip files.
If found it will trigger unziping, upload and deletion.
if you don't want to create a cronjob you can always think about creating a daemon (but why bother)
Since I am on Mac OSX Mavericks, my best bet is to use watchdog - the most popular python module for this kind of stuff.
Related
I need to locally store some basic data the user inputs into my exe. The program was compiled using pyinstaller and was previously making use of the os open method of saving data to txt files. It is my understanding that macOS(my OS although cross-compatibility with Windows would be great) locks executables so that they may not make any file changes. The program currently does save the data, but when the executable is run again the old data is no longer accessible.
It seems obvious that apps store things locally all the time, how can data be persisted specifically within the python/pyinstaller combination?
Apologies if this is a simple question, it definitely seems simple but I can't find documentation for this anywhere.
You can use
os.path.expanduser('~user')
to get the user home directory in a cross-platform manner, see How to find the real user home directory using python?
Your application should have write permissions in the user home directory, so then you can let it create and modify a data file there following How to store Python application data.
I've created a project in Pycharm that is composed by 3 py scripts and requires a json file with authentication parameter to read files coming from google drive and finally a file to manipulate data in a sqlite table create on the fly.
That works super good in my computer and the server (windows server 2016 standard edition). I need to execute this program(script) whole days so I've tried with the script.py using cmdExec in SQL and Windows scheduler manager and it doesnt work. otherwise if manually in the server I perform double click that runs.
I realized that when I run the script manually the execution is
C:\path of folder where is the script> C:\whole path again\script.py
Otherwise from windows scheduler is always:
C:\windows\system32> C:\whole path again\script.py
How can I force to fix this path or probably if I can create a .exe of my project in pycharm that could work? But I've not found too much info about how follow this process.
If you want to create an exe you can use cx_Freeze or py2exe.
However, you could also try an other way (such as .bat file).
I think "pyinstaller" is the best choice. it can package a python program to an *.exe file. so you can execute this program om windows platform. And you don't need to install python on windows. office website is "http://www.pyinstaller.org/". it is easy to use.
note:pyinstaller don't support python3.6
hope to help you.
Hi guys finally after a research within our library contributions I found the follow link where another person shared the experience to create a bat file.
Finally following this post from another contributor I could figured out my issue and my bat scripts looks like:
#echo off
py -u "path\ReadFile.py"
echo %ERRORLEVEL%
Thanks everyone
I am trying to create a google drive like backup program using python that backs up to a Linux box that will further backup to an off site place tbd. I have ran into a few interesting coding and computer challenges in doing this.
The one I am working on right now has to do with "locked" files. So what do I mean by this? In windows 7 if you create a .txt file you can open it in notepad(any program) and at the same time you can open it in a python program. If you make a change in the .txt file and save the change but BEFORE closing it you can still open and see the changes in pythn. Now change the file to a .docx windows file and open it with word 2007. While opened in word you cannot access it with in python until the user closes it.
Now if you look at google drive, the desktop install not the web only variety, you can open a .docx file and change it. Once you save it but BEFORE closing google drive has already synched the file.
Google drive must have some sort of lower level access to the file than the simple python file.open() command.
So here is the question. Does anyone know of a way to access files in python in such a way as to keep me from having to wait for the user to close the file.
Edit 1:
Let me further explain. Once I have created an sqlite database that has all the files and directories I will then use the win32file.ReadDirectoryChangesW() function to monitor for changes. My problem stems from the fact that when setting up the application of first install/run it must catalog all files and files that are open in windows office are locked and cannot be cataloged. Is there a way around this?
Many backup tools use snapshots. Then, they'll copy the locked file directly from the snapshot rather than coping it directly from the filesystem. If you're on Windows you should check Windows VSS, see the Microsoft documentation for more details. Otherwise, if the filesystem you're on supports snapshots check its documentation as well.
Third party tools
You can use the subprocess Python module to run third-party tools which will take snapshots for you.
Microsoft VSS
In case you want to do it by yourself you might need modules from the Win32 API such as win32com module.
There is also on Github a project that seems to do the job: pyshadowcopy
Filesystem Snapshot
Depending on the filesystem features, you might find python modules or tools allowing you to take a snapshot.
I recently came across an interesting way to deploy a Python application to users on a local Windows network:
Install Python properly on user machines (the same minor version on all machines)
Create a shared network folder
Copy Python application files into the folder
Create a .bat script that tweaks the PYTHONPATH and invokes the main .py file
Copy shortcut onto each Windows desktop
User invokes the application by double-clicking the shortcut
This deployment option isn't listed as a shipping option in the Python Guide. Are there any obvious gotchas to having multiple users run the same .py files from a shared location?
(Assume that any other resource sharing is handled correctly by the application(s), e.g. they don't try to write to a shared file.)
(I'm open to suggestions on making this a more valid and answerable question.)
Your creative approach requires your PC to always be on, and the network working, and what about performance, when is it safe to update python, what about someone who wants to use your app away from your network, ...
Why not package the script into an exe? I've used py2exe http://www.py2exe.org/
This has the added advantage that it's not so easy for people to play with your script and 'adapt' it in ways that might break it. The exe is a lot bigger than the script, but we're not talking hundreds of megs. It doesn't need an installer or anything like that.
I used Pyinstaller to create a standalone exe file for a PyQt project. I did not use the single file option because the exe that is created with the single file option takes too long to open. Therefore, Pyinstaller created a dist folder that contains a bunch of files including my program.exe file. I would now like to create a setup.exe file that will place the contents of my dist folder in the program directory and create a shortcut in the start menu and on the desktop. I want it to be super simple for the user. Maybe like the setup.exe files that you get when you download a program from CNET. I found Inno-setup, which looks promising. However, I do not know if there any special considerations because the program is a standalone program create from a python/PyQt program. Thanks! Anyone have experience with this task? Is there a program everyone is using for this task that I do not know about?
Inno-Setup or NSIS are probably the easiest to use. You just tell them what files to include and where to put them and then they will create a nice installer for you. I wrote a short tutorial on my experiences using InnoSetup that you might find helpful:
http://www.blog.pythonlibrary.org/2008/08/27/packaging-wxpymail-for-distribution/
Note that this tutorial was based around a wxPython app I wrote, but the concepts are the same.