Using grep in python

Abstraction: Running grep from Python via os.system with a readline loop

Key points:

• Uses os.system() to execute grep commands built by string formatting: cmd = 'grep %s file.txt' % term
• Reads search terms from a file line-by-line with readline() inside a while loop
• Common pitfall: readline() retains the trailing newline character, breaking the shell command string
• Pattern works for simple one-off searches but subprocess module is preferred for capturing output

Connections: Python Scripting · Shell Integration

Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9018109/using-grep-in-python