Python -- "Batch Processing" of Multiple Existing Scripts
I Have Written Three Simple Scripts (Which I Will Not Post Here, as They Are Part of My Dissertation Research) That Are All in Working Order. What I Would Like...
I have written three simple scripts (which I will not post here, as they are part of my dissertation research) that are all in working order.
What I would like to do now is write a "batch-processing" script for them. I have many (read as potentially tens of thousands) of data files on which I want these scripts to act.
My questions about this process are as follows:
- What is the most efficient way to go about this sort of thing?
- I am relatively new to programming. Is there a simple way to do this, or is this a very complex endeavor?
Before anyone downvotes this question as "unresearched" or whatever negative connotation comes to mind, PLEASE just offer help. I have spent days reading documentation and following leads from Google searches, and it would be most appreciated if a human being could offer some input.
2 Answers
If you just need to have the scripts run, probably a shell script would be the easiest thing.
If you want to stay in Python, the best way would be to have a main() (or somesuch) function in each script (and have each script importable), have the batch script import the subscript and then run its main.
If staying in Python:
- your three scripts must have the .py ending to be importable
- they should either be in Python's search path, or the batch control script can set the path
- they should each have a main function (or whatever name you choose) that will activate that script
For example:
batch_script
import sys
sys.path.insert(0, '/location/of/subscripts')
import first_script
import second_script
import third_script
first_script.main('/location/of/files')
second_script.main('/location/of/files')
third_script.main('/location/of/files')
example sub_script
import os
import sys
import some_other_stuff
SOMETHING_IMPORTANT = 'a value'
def do_frobber(a_file):
...
def main(path_to_files):
all_files = os.listdir(path_to_files)
for file in all_files:
do_frobber(os.path.join(path_to_files, file)
if __name__ == '__main__':
main(sys.argv[1])
This way, your subscript can be run on its own, or called from the main script.
You can write a batch script in python using os.walk() to generate a list of the files and then process them one by one with your existing python programs.
import os, re
for root, dir, file in os.walk(/path/to/files):
for f in file:
if re.match('.*\.dat$', f):
run_existing_script1 root + "/" file
run_existing_script2 root + "/" file
If there are other files in the directory you might want to add a regex to ensure you only process the files you're interested in.
EDIT - added regular expression to ensure only files ending ".dat" are processed.
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