6. Generic Operating System Services

The modules described in this chapter provide interfaces to operating system features that are available on (almost) all operating systems, such as files and a clock. The interfaces are generally modeled after the Unix or C interfaces, but they are available on most other systems as well. Here's an overview:

os Miscellaneous operating system interfaces.

os.path Common pathname manipulations.

dircache Return directory listing, with cache mechanism.

stat Utilities for interpreting the results of os.stat(), os.lstat() and os.fstat().

statcache Stat files, and remember results.

statvfs Constants for interpreting the result of os.statvfs().

filecmp Compare files efficiently.

subprocess Subprocess management.

popen2 Subprocesses with accessible standard I/O streams.

datetime Basic date and time types.

time Time access and conversions.

sched General purpose event scheduler.

mutex Lock and queue for mutual exclusion.

getpass Portable reading of passwords and retrieval of the userid.

curses An interface to the curses library, providing portable terminal handling.

curses.textpad Emacs-like input editing in a curses window.

curses.wrapper Terminal configuration wrapper for curses programs.

curses.ascii Constants and set-membership functions for ASCII characters.

curses.panel A panel stack extension that adds depth to curses windows.

getopt Portable parser for command line options; support both short and long option names.

optparse More convenient, flexible, and powerful command-line parsing library.

tempfile Generate temporary files and directories.

errno Standard errno system symbols.

glob Unix shell style pathname pattern expansion.

fnmatch Unix shell style filename pattern matching.

shutil High-level file operations, including copying.

locale Internationalization services.

gettext Multilingual internationalization services.

logging Logging module for Python based on PEP 282.

platform Retrieves as much platform identifying data as possible.

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`os`		Miscellaneous operating system interfaces.
`os.path`		Common pathname manipulations.
`dircache`		Return directory listing, with cache mechanism.
`stat`		Utilities for interpreting the results of `os.stat()`, `os.lstat()` and `os.fstat()`.
`statcache`		Stat files, and remember results.
`statvfs`		Constants for interpreting the result of `os.statvfs()`.
`filecmp`		Compare files efficiently.
`subprocess`		Subprocess management.
`popen2`		Subprocesses with accessible standard I/O streams.
`datetime`		Basic date and time types.
`time`		Time access and conversions.
`sched`		General purpose event scheduler.
`mutex`		Lock and queue for mutual exclusion.
`getpass`		Portable reading of passwords and retrieval of the userid.
`curses`		An interface to the curses library, providing portable terminal handling.
`curses.textpad`		Emacs-like input editing in a curses window.
`curses.wrapper`		Terminal configuration wrapper for curses programs.
`curses.ascii`		Constants and set-membership functions for ASCII characters.
`curses.panel`		A panel stack extension that adds depth to curses windows.
`getopt`		Portable parser for command line options; support both short and long option names.
`optparse`		More convenient, flexible, and powerful command-line parsing library.
`tempfile`		Generate temporary files and directories.
`errno`		Standard errno system symbols.
`glob`		Unix shell style pathname pattern expansion.
`fnmatch`		Unix shell style filename pattern matching.
`shutil`		High-level file operations, including copying.
`locale`		Internationalization services.
`gettext`		Multilingual internationalization services.
`logging`		Logging module for Python based on PEP 282.
`platform`		Retrieves as much platform identifying data as possible.