File writing

When writing information to a file, it is very important to specify the correct mode for opening the file, so as not to accidentally delete it:

• w - open file for writing. If file exists, its content is removed

• a - open file to add data. Data is appended to the end of the file

Both modes create a file if it does not exist.

The following methods are used to write to a file:

• write - write one line to file

• writelines - allows to send as argument a list of strings

write

Method write expects string to write.

For example, take a list of lines with configuration:

In [1]: cfg_lines = ['!',
   ...:  'service timestamps debug datetime msec localtime show-timezone year',
   ...:  'service timestamps log datetime msec localtime show-timezone year',
   ...:  'service password-encryption',
   ...:  'service sequence-numbers',
   ...:  '!',
   ...:  'no ip domain lookup',
   ...:  '!',
   ...:  'ip ssh version 2',
   ...:  '!']

Open r2.txt file in write mode:

In [2]: f = open('r2.txt', 'w')

Convert the list of commands to one large string using join:

In [3]: cfg_lines_as_string = '\n'.join(cfg_lines)

In [4]: cfg_lines_as_string
Out[4]: '!\nservice timestamps debug datetime msec localtime show-timezone year\nservice timestamps log datetime msec localtime show-timezone year\nservice password-encryption\nservice sequence-numbers\n!\nno ip domain lookup\n!\nip ssh version 2\n!'

Write a string to a file:

In [5]: f.write(cfg_lines_as_string)

Similarly, you can add a string manually:

In [6]: f.write('\nhostname r2')

After work with file is finished, it should be closed:

In [7]: f.close()

Since ipython supports cat command, you can easily see the content of file:

In [8]: cat r2.txt
!
service timestamps debug datetime msec localtime show-timezone year
service timestamps log datetime msec localtime show-timezone year
service password-encryption
service sequence-numbers
!
no ip domain lookup
!
ip ssh version 2
!
hostname r2

writelines

Method writelines expects list of strings as an argument.

Writing cfg_lines list into the file:

In [1]: cfg_lines = ['!',
   ...:  'service timestamps debug datetime msec localtime show-timezone year',
   ...:  'service timestamps log datetime msec localtime show-timezone year',
   ...:  'service password-encryption',
   ...:  'service sequence-numbers',
   ...:  '!',
   ...:  'no ip domain lookup',
   ...:  '!',
   ...:  'ip ssh version 2',
   ...:  '!']

In [9]: f = open('r2.txt', 'w')

In [10]: f.writelines(cfg_lines)

In [11]: f.close()

In [12]: cat r2.txt
!service timestamps debug datetime msec localtime show-timezone yearservice timestamps log datetime msec localtime show-timezone yearservice password-encryptionservice sequence-numbers!no ip domain lookup!ip ssh version 2!

As a result, all lines in the list were written into one line because there was no symbol \n at the end of lines. You can add newline character in different ways. For example, you can loop through a list:

In [13]: cfg_lines2 = []

In [14]: for line in cfg_lines:
   ....:     cfg_lines2.append(line + '\n')
   ....:

In [15]: cfg_lines2
Out[15]:
['!\n',
 'service timestamps debug datetime msec localtime show-timezone year\n',
 'service timestamps log datetime msec localtime show-timezone year\n',
 'service password-encryption\n',
 'service sequence-numbers\n',
 '!\n',
 'no ip domain lookup\n',
 '!\n',
 'ip ssh version 2\n',

If the final list is written anew to the file, then it will already contain newlines:

In [18]: f = open('r2.txt', 'w')

In [19]: f.writelines(cfg_lines2)

In [20]: f.close()

In [21]: cat r2.txt
!
service timestamps debug datetime msec localtime show-timezone year
service timestamps log datetime msec localtime show-timezone year
service password-encryption
service sequence-numbers
!
no ip domain lookup
!
ip ssh version 2
!