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1:mod:`fileinput` --- Iterate over lines from multiple input streams
2===================================================================
3
4.. module:: fileinput
5   :synopsis: Loop over standard input or a list of files.
6.. moduleauthor:: Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org>
7.. sectionauthor:: Fred L. Drake, Jr. <fdrake@acm.org>
8
9**Source code:** :source:`Lib/fileinput.py`
10
11--------------
12
13This module implements a helper class and functions to quickly write a
14loop over standard input or a list of files. If you just want to read or
15write one file see :func:`open`.
16
17The typical use is::
18
19   import fileinput
20   for line in fileinput.input():
21       process(line)
22
23This iterates over the lines of all files listed in ``sys.argv[1:]``, defaulting
24to ``sys.stdin`` if the list is empty.  If a filename is ``'-'``, it is also
25replaced by ``sys.stdin``.  To specify an alternative list of filenames, pass it
26as the first argument to :func:`.input`.  A single file name is also allowed.
27
28All files are opened in text mode by default, but you can override this by
29specifying the *mode* parameter in the call to :func:`.input` or
30:class:`FileInput()`.  If an I/O error occurs during opening or reading a file,
31:exc:`IOError` is raised.
32
33If ``sys.stdin`` is used more than once, the second and further use will return
34no lines, except perhaps for interactive use, or if it has been explicitly reset
35(e.g. using ``sys.stdin.seek(0)``).
36
37Empty files are opened and immediately closed; the only time their presence in
38the list of filenames is noticeable at all is when the last file opened is
39empty.
40
41Lines are returned with any newlines intact, which means that the last line in
42a file may not have one.
43
44You can control how files are opened by providing an opening hook via the
45*openhook* parameter to :func:`fileinput.input` or :class:`FileInput()`. The
46hook must be a function that takes two arguments, *filename* and *mode*, and
47returns an accordingly opened file-like object. Two useful hooks are already
48provided by this module.
49
50The following function is the primary interface of this module:
51
52
53.. function:: input([files[, inplace[, backup[, bufsize[, mode[, openhook]]]]]])
54
55   Create an instance of the :class:`FileInput` class.  The instance will be used
56   as global state for the functions of this module, and is also returned to use
57   during iteration.  The parameters to this function will be passed along to the
58   constructor of the :class:`FileInput` class.
59
60   .. versionchanged:: 2.5
61      Added the *mode* and *openhook* parameters.
62
63   .. versionchanged:: 2.7.12
64      The *bufsize* parameter is no longer used.
65
66The following functions use the global state created by :func:`fileinput.input`;
67if there is no active state, :exc:`RuntimeError` is raised.
68
69
70.. function:: filename()
71
72   Return the name of the file currently being read.  Before the first line has
73   been read, returns ``None``.
74
75
76.. function:: fileno()
77
78   Return the integer "file descriptor" for the current file. When no file is
79   opened (before the first line and between files), returns ``-1``.
80
81   .. versionadded:: 2.5
82
83
84.. function:: lineno()
85
86   Return the cumulative line number of the line that has just been read.  Before
87   the first line has been read, returns ``0``.  After the last line of the last
88   file has been read, returns the line number of that line.
89
90
91.. function:: filelineno()
92
93   Return the line number in the current file.  Before the first line has been
94   read, returns ``0``.  After the last line of the last file has been read,
95   returns the line number of that line within the file.
96
97
98.. function:: isfirstline()
99
100   Returns true if the line just read is the first line of its file, otherwise
101   returns false.
102
103
104.. function:: isstdin()
105
106   Returns true if the last line was read from ``sys.stdin``, otherwise returns
107   false.
108
109
110.. function:: nextfile()
111
112   Close the current file so that the next iteration will read the first line from
113   the next file (if any); lines not read from the file will not count towards the
114   cumulative line count.  The filename is not changed until after the first line
115   of the next file has been read.  Before the first line has been read, this
116   function has no effect; it cannot be used to skip the first file.  After the
117   last line of the last file has been read, this function has no effect.
118
119
120.. function:: close()
121
122   Close the sequence.
123
124The class which implements the sequence behavior provided by the module is
125available for subclassing as well:
126
127
128.. class:: FileInput([files[, inplace[, backup[,bufsize[, mode[, openhook]]]]]])
129
130   Class :class:`FileInput` is the implementation; its methods :meth:`filename`,
131   :meth:`fileno`, :meth:`lineno`, :meth:`filelineno`, :meth:`isfirstline`,
132   :meth:`isstdin`, :meth:`nextfile` and :meth:`close` correspond to the
133   functions of the same name in the module. In addition it has a
134   :meth:`~file.readline` method which returns the next input line,
135   and a :meth:`__getitem__` method which implements the sequence behavior.
136   The sequence must be accessed in strictly sequential order; random access
137   and :meth:`~file.readline` cannot be mixed.
138
139   With *mode* you can specify which file mode will be passed to :func:`open`. It
140   must be one of ``'r'``, ``'rU'``, ``'U'`` and ``'rb'``.
141
142   The *openhook*, when given, must be a function that takes two arguments,
143   *filename* and *mode*, and returns an accordingly opened file-like object. You
144   cannot use *inplace* and *openhook* together.
145
146   .. versionchanged:: 2.5
147      Added the *mode* and *openhook* parameters.
148
149   .. versionchanged:: 2.7.12
150      The *bufsize* parameter is no longer used.
151
152**Optional in-place filtering:** if the keyword argument ``inplace=1`` is passed
153to :func:`fileinput.input` or to the :class:`FileInput` constructor, the file is
154moved to a backup file and standard output is directed to the input file (if a
155file of the same name as the backup file already exists, it will be replaced
156silently).  This makes it possible to write a filter that rewrites its input
157file in place.  If the *backup* parameter is given (typically as
158``backup='.<some extension>'``), it specifies the extension for the backup file,
159and the backup file remains around; by default, the extension is ``'.bak'`` and
160it is deleted when the output file is closed.  In-place filtering is disabled
161when standard input is read.
162
163.. note::
164
165   The current implementation does not work for MS-DOS 8+3 filesystems.
166
167
168The two following opening hooks are provided by this module:
169
170.. function:: hook_compressed(filename, mode)
171
172   Transparently opens files compressed with gzip and bzip2 (recognized by the
173   extensions ``'.gz'`` and ``'.bz2'``) using the :mod:`gzip` and :mod:`bz2`
174   modules.  If the filename extension is not ``'.gz'`` or ``'.bz2'``, the file is
175   opened normally (ie, using :func:`open` without any decompression).
176
177   Usage example:  ``fi = fileinput.FileInput(openhook=fileinput.hook_compressed)``
178
179   .. versionadded:: 2.5
180
181
182.. function:: hook_encoded(encoding)
183
184   Returns a hook which opens each file with :func:`io.open`, using the given
185   *encoding* to read the file.
186
187   Usage example: ``fi =
188   fileinput.FileInput(openhook=fileinput.hook_encoded("iso-8859-1"))``
189
190   .. note::
191
192      With this hook, :class:`FileInput` might return Unicode strings depending on the
193      specified *encoding*.
194
195   .. versionadded:: 2.5
196
197