Automation & scripting
CLI tools, scheduled jobs, filesystem tasks, and glue scripts that save time.
Python: Archive Old Logs by Compressing Gzip by Age
A Python script that finds .log files older than a specified age and compresses them into .gz archives while removing the originals.
import gzip
import os
import shutil
from pathlib import Path
def archive_logs(log_dir: str, max_age_days: int) -> list[str]:
"""Compress log files older than max_age_days into .gz archives.
Returns a list of compressed file paths.
"""
cutoff = time.time() - max_age_days * 86400
compressed = …Track Internet Connectivity and Downtime Automatically in Python
Monitors internet connectivity by pinging a remote host and logs any downtime events with timestamps and duration.
import time
import subprocess
from datetime import datetime
def check_internet(host="8.8.8.8", timeout=3):
"""Returns True if internet is reachable via ping."""
try:
subprocess.run(
["ping", "-c", "1", "-W", str(timeout), host],
capture_output=True,
timeout=timeout …Browse by section
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Automation & scripting — Python code examples
What you will find here
This page collects automation & scripting snippets — short, copy-ready Python you can paste into our free online IDE and run without installing anything. Each sample includes a plain-English explanation and the full source code.
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Samples are quick reference — one concept per page. For step-by-step teaching, use our Python tutorials. To test yourself, try quizzes or coding challenges. Clean up style with the Python formatter.