10 Useful Python Automation Scripts for File Management, Data Retrieval, and System Monitoring

1. File Backup Script This script periodically copies all files from a specified source directory to a destination directory, appending a timestamp to each backup file name.

import shutil
import os
import datetime

def backup_files(src, dst):
    timestamp = datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%Y%m%d%H%M%S")
    for filename in os.listdir(src):
        shutil.copy(os.path.join(src, filename), os.path.join(dst, f"{timestamp}_{filename}"))

if __name__ == "__main__":
    src_dir = "/path/to/source"
    dst_dir = "/path/to/destination"
    backup_files(src_dir, dst_dir)

2. Data Download Script A simple script that fetches a file from a given URL and saves it locally.

import requests

def download_file(url, path):
    response = requests.get(url)
    with open(path, 'wb') as file:
        file.write(response.content)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    url = "http://example.com/data.csv"
    download_file(url, "/path/to/downloaded/file.csv")

3. File Renaming Script Batch renames files in a directory by adding a specified prefix.

import os

def rename_files(directory, prefix="new_prefix"):
    for filename in os.listdir(directory):
        new_name = f"{prefix}_{filename}"
        os.rename(os.path.join(directory, filename), os.path.join(directory, new_name))

if __name__ == "__main__":
    directory = "/path/to/directory"
    rename_files(directory)

4. CSV Data Processing Script Reads a CSV file, adds a new column whose values are derived from an existing column, and writes the result to a new file.

import csv

def process_csv(input_path, output_path):
    with open(input_path, newline='') as csvfile:
        reader = csv.DictReader(csvfile)
        fieldnames = reader.fieldnames + ['new_column']
        with open(output_path, 'w', newline='') as outfile:
            writer = csv.DictWriter(outfile, fieldnames=fieldnames)
            writer.writeheader()
            for row in reader:
                row['new_column'] = row['column_name'] * 2
                writer.writerow(row)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    input_path = "/path/to/input.csv"
    output_path = "/path/to/output.csv"
    process_csv(input_path, output_path)

5. Network Monitoring Script Checks the reachability of a host (default 8.8.8.8) using a ping command and reports the network status.

import subprocess

def check_network(host="8.8.8.8", port=53):
    result = subprocess.run(["ping", "-c", "1", host], capture_output=True, text=True)
    if result.returncode == 0:
        print("Network is up.")
    else:
        print("Network is down.")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    check_network()

6. Automated Email Sending Script Sends an email with a subject and message body using an SMTP server.

import smtplib
from email.mime.text import MIMEText

def send_email(subject, message, to_addr, from_addr, password):
    msg = MIMEText(message)
    msg['Subject'] = subject
    msg['From'] = from_addr
    msg['To'] = to_addr
    server = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.example.com')
    server.starttls()
    server.login(from_addr, password)
    server.send_message(msg)
    server.quit()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    subject = "Daily Report"
    message = "This is the daily report."
    to_addr = "[email protected]"
    from_addr = "[email protected]"
    password = "password"
    send_email(subject, message, to_addr, from_addr, password)

7. Directory Synchronization Script Deletes the destination directory (if it exists) and copies the entire source directory to it, effectively synchronizing their contents.

import shutil

def sync_directories(src, dst):
    shutil.rmtree(dst, ignore_errors=True)
    shutil.copytree(src, dst)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    src_dir = "/path/to/source"
    dst_dir = "/path/to/destination"
    sync_directories(src_dir, dst_dir)

8. Webpage Scraping Script Fetches a webpage and returns its prettified HTML using BeautifulSoup.

import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

def fetch_webpage(url):
    response = requests.get(url)
    soup = BeautifulSoup(response.text, 'html.parser')
    return soup.prettify()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    url = "http://example.com"
    webpage_content = fetch_webpage(url)
    print(webpage_content)

9. Log Analysis Script Scans a log file for lines matching a given regular expression pattern (e.g., "ERROR") and prints matching lines.

import re

def analyze_logs(logfile, pattern):
    with open(logfile, 'r') as file:
        for line in file:
            if re.search(pattern, line):
                print(line.strip())

if __name__ == "__main__":
    logfile = "/path/to/logfile.log"
    pattern = r"ERROR"
    analyze_logs(logfile, pattern)

10. Scheduled Task Script Runs an infinite loop that executes a placeholder task every hour, demonstrating a simple scheduling mechanism.

import time

def scheduled_task():
    while True:
        # Your task here
        print("Executing task...")
        time.sleep(3600)  # Sleep for an hour

if __name__ == "__main__":
    scheduled_task()