Python starter script

From Noah.org

My starter template for a Python CLI script

This is my quintessential Python starter template for command-line scripts. This is a elaborate hello world that I use whenever I start a new script.

What inspired this is that whenever I wrote a shell script I always found myself going back to add readline support; then getopt arg parsing; then exception handling; then help documentation, etc... I'd always end up with this hello world script at the core. So what I did was pull this out and make it pretty.

To make this even more useful I have Vim use this as a template for new Python files. I added the following lines to my .vimrc:

augroup BufNewFileFromTemplate
au!
autocmd BufNewFile * silent! 0r $HOME/.vim/templates/%:e.tpl
autocmd BufNewFile * normal! G"_dd1G
autocmd BufNewFile * silent! match Todo /TODO/
augroup BufNewFileFromTemplate

Then I put this script in a file named:

 ~/.vim/templates/py.tpl

Now whenever I start a new Python script Vim will automatically copy this template into my buffer.

Click to download: py.tpl

#!/usr/bin/env python

"""
SYNOPSIS

    TODO helloworld [-h] [-v,--verbose] [--version]

DESCRIPTION

    TODO This describes how to use this script.
    This docstring will be printed by the script if there is an error or
    if the user requests help (-h or --help).

EXAMPLES

    TODO: Show some examples of how to use this script.

EXIT STATUS

    TODO: List exit codes

AUTHOR

    TODO: Name <name@example.org>

LICENSE

    This script is in the public domain.

VERSION

    
"""

import sys
import os
import traceback
import optparse
import time
#from pexpect import run, spawn

# Uncomment the following section if you want readline history support.
#import readline, atexit
#histfile = os.path.join(os.environ['HOME'], '.TODO_history')
#try:
#    readline.read_history_file(histfile)
#except IOError:
#    pass
#atexit.register(readline.write_history_file, histfile)

def main ():

    global options, args

    # TODO: Do something more interesting here...
    print 'Hello world!'

if __name__ == '__main__':
    try:
        start_time = time.time()
        parser = optparse.OptionParser(
                formatter=optparse.TitledHelpFormatter(),
                usage=globals()['__doc__'],
                version='$Id: py.tpl 332 2008-10-21 22:24:52Z root $')
        parser.add_option ('-v', '--verbose', action='store_true',
                default=False, help='verbose output')
        (options, args) = parser.parse_args()
        #if len(args) < 1:
        #    parser.error ('missing argument')
        if options.verbose: print time.asctime()
        exit_code = main()
        if exit_code is None:
            exit_code = 0
        if options.verbose: print time.asctime()
        if options.verbose: print 'TOTAL TIME IN MINUTES:',
        if options.verbose: print (time.time() - start_time) / 60.0
        sys.exit(exit_code)
    except KeyboardInterrupt, e: # Ctrl-C
        raise e
    except SystemExit, e: # sys.exit()
        raise e
    except Exception, e:
        print 'ERROR, UNEXPECTED EXCEPTION'
        print str(e)
        traceback.print_exc()
        os._exit(1)

# vim:set sr et ts=4 sw=4 ft=python fenc=utf-8: // See Vim, :help 'modeline'