Automation & scripting
CLI tools, scheduled jobs, filesystem tasks, and glue scripts that save time.
Create a Simple HTTP File Server in Python
This code creates a simple HTTP file server that serves files from the current working directory on port 8000 using Python's built-in http.server module.
import http.server
import socketserver
import os
PORT = 8000
DIRECTORY = os.getcwd()
class CustomHandler(http.server.SimpleHTTPRequestHandler):
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
super().__init__(*args, directory=DIRECTORY, **kwargs)
def log_message(self, format, *args):
print(f"[{self.log…Detect Circular Imports Across Python Projects Automatically
This script walks through all .py files in a directory, builds an import graph, and uses depth-first search to find cycles—printing each circular dependency chain.
import ast
import sys
from pathlib import Path
from collections import defaultdict, deque
def find_imports(filepath):
"""Return set of module names imported by a Python file."""
imports = set()
try:
with open(filepath) as f:
tree = ast.parse(f.read())
except (SyntaxError, UnicodeDe…Detect Memory Leaks in Python with Weak References
A custom LeakDetector uses weak references and garbage collection to find class instances that survive past expected cleanup in long-running Python applications.
import gc
import sys
import weakref
import time
from collections import defaultdict
class LeakDetector:
def __init__(self):
self._tracked = defaultdict(list)
def track_class(self, cls):
"""Track all instances of a class for leak detection."""
old_init = cls.__init__
def new_in…Detect and Remove Blurry Images in Python with OpenCV
Automatically scan a directory of images, detect blur using Laplacian variance, and remove blurry images with a dry-run option for safety.
from pathlib import Path
import cv2
import numpy as np
def is_blurry(image_path, threshold=100.0):
"""
Detect if an image is blurry using Laplacian variance.
Returns True if blurry, False otherwise.
"""
img = cv2.imread(str(image_path), cv2.IMREAD_GRAYSCALE)
if img is None:
return True…Discover RSS Feeds From Any Website in Python
Scrape a website's HTML to automatically find all linked RSS or Atom feed URLs using requests, BeautifulSoup, and regex.
import requests
import re
from urllib.parse import urljoin, urlparse
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
def discover_rss_feeds(url):
"""Discover all RSS/Atom feeds linked from a given website."""
try:
headers = {'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; RSSDiscovery/1.0)'}
response = requests.get(url…Download Images from a Web Page Automatically in Python
Scrape all images from a webpage, filter by extension, and save them to a local folder using requests and BeautifulSoup.
import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
from urllib.parse import urljoin
import os
def download_images(url, output_folder="downloaded_images"):
"""Download all images from a given URL."""
os.makedirs(output_folder, exist_ok=True)
response = requests.get(url)
response.raise_for_status()
…Extract All Links from Any Website in Python
Scrape a webpage and extract all absolute HTTP/HTTPS links using requests and regex.
import requests
import re
from urllib.parse import urljoin
def extract_links(url):
try:
response = requests.get(url)
response.raise_for_status()
html = response.text
# Find all href attributes in anchor tags
pattern = r'href=["\'](.*?)["\']'
raw_links = re.findall(p…Fetch weather API mock and write dashboard HTML in Python
This script fetches a mock weather API response as a Python dict, builds a simple HTML dashboard, writes it to a file, and prints both the file path and JSON payload.
from datetime import datetime
import json
import os
def fetch_weather_mock(city: str) -> dict:
"""Return a mock weather payload for a given city."""
return {
"city": city,
"temperature_c": 21.5,
"condition": "Partly Cloudy",
"humidity": 58,
"wind_kph": 12.3,
"u…Fill PDF Form Fields from a Mock Template in Python
Fills a PDF-style form template dictionary with user data, preserving template fields and formatting output as JSON.
import json
template = {
"first_name": "",
"last_name": "",
"email": "",
"phone": "",
"date_of_birth": "",
"address": "",
"city": "",
"state": "",
"zip_code": "",
"agree_to_terms": False
}
def fill_pdf_form(template: dict, data: dict) -> dict:
for key, value in data.items…Find All Redirects on a Website in Python
Crawl a website from a starting URL, follow links within the same domain, and detect every HTTP redirect (301, 302, 303, 307, 308) using requests with redirects disabled.
import requests
from urllib.parse import urljoin, urlparse
from collections import deque
def find_redirects(start_url, max_pages=50):
visited = set()
redirects = {}
queue = deque([start_url])
while queue and len(visited) < max_pages:
url = queue.popleft()
if url in visited:
…Find Best Meeting Time Across Time Zones in Python
This code calculates overlapping available hours among participants in different time zones and returns the best meeting time in UTC and each participant's local time.
from datetime import datetime, timedelta, timezone
from zoneinfo import ZoneInfo
from dataclasses import dataclass
from typing import List, Tuple, Optional
@dataclass
class Participant:
name: str
timezone: str
# weekdays availability: 0=Mon, start_hour (0-23), end_hour (0-23)
available_slots: List[Tup…Find Broken Image References Across a Website in Python
Crawl internal pages of a website, collect all image source URLs, then check each with HEAD requests to report any that return HTTP 4xx or connection errors.
import requests
from urllib.parse import urljoin, urlparse
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor, as_completed
def find_all_links(base_url, max_pages=50):
visited, to_visit = set(), {base_url}
while to_visit and len(visited) < max_pages:
url = to_visit.pop()
…Find Dead Code in a Python Project Using AST
Walk a project tree, parse every Python file with ast, and list defined functions that are never called anywhere.
import ast
import os
import sys
def find_dead_code(project_path):
defined_functions = {}
called_functions = set()
for root, dirs, files in os.walk(project_path):
for file in files:
if file.endswith('.py'):
filepath = os.path.join(root, file)
with open(f…Find Orphan Files Not Referenced Anywhere in Python
Scan a project directory for files whose names never appear in the content of other files, identifying potentially unused resources.
import os
from pathlib import Path
import re
def find_orphan_files(root_dir: str, extensions: set = None, ignore_patterns: list = None):
"""Find files not referenced by any other file in the project."""
if extensions is None:
extensions = {'.txt', '.md', '.py', '.html', '.css', '.js', '.json', '.yaml'…Find Sensitive Information in Log Files with Python
Scan log files for emails, IP addresses, API keys, and passwords using regular expressions in Python.
import re
import os
from pathlib import Path
def find_sensitive_info(log_path):
"""Scans log files for patterns like emails, IPs, API keys, and passwords."""
patterns = {
'Email': r'[a-zA-Z0-9._%+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,}',
'IP Address': r'\b(?:\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3}\b',
'API Key'…Find Unused Python Packages Automatically
Scan a Python project's source files for imports and list installed packages not imported anywhere.
import pkg_resources
import ast
import os
import sys
from pathlib import Path
def find_imports_in_project(project_dir="."):
imports = set()
for py_file in Path(project_dir).rglob("*.py"):
try:
with open(py_file, "r") as f:
tree = ast.parse(f.read())
for node in …Find Zombie Processes on Linux with Python
Parse the output of `ps -eo pid,stat,comm` to detect processes in zombie state (Z) on a Linux system and report their PIDs and commands.
#!/usr/bin/env python3
import os
import subprocess
def find_zombie_processes():
"""Find zombie processes (state 'Z') running on Linux."""
try:
result = subprocess.run(['ps', '-eo', 'pid,stat,comm'], capture_output=True, text=True, check=True)
zombies = []
for line in result.stdout.stri…Find and Delete Duplicate Files Using Hashing in Python
Walk a directory tree, compute SHA256 hashes for every file, and delete duplicates that share the same hash.
import hashlib
import os
from pathlib import Path
def file_hash(path, block_size=65536):
"""Return SHA256 hash of file content."""
hasher = hashlib.sha256()
with open(path, 'rb') as f:
while chunk := f.read(block_size):
hasher.update(chunk)
return hasher.hexdigest()
def find_and_d…Find the Largest Files Consuming Disk Space with a Beautiful Terminal Report in Python
Scan a directory recursively and print a formatted terminal report of the largest files, with human-readable sizes.
import os
import sys
from pathlib import Path
def get_largest_files(directory: str, count: int = 10) -> list:
"""
Scan the given directory and return the largest files.
Args:
directory: Path to the directory to scan
count: Number of largest files to return
Returns:
…Generate Holiday Calendars for Different Countries in Python
Generate a sorted list of public holidays for a given country and year using Python's calendar and datetime modules.
import calendar
from datetime import date, timedelta
def generate_holiday_calendar(country_code, year=2025):
holidays = []
if country_code == "US":
# New Year's Day
holidays.append(date(year, 1, 1))
# Independence Day
holidays.append(date(year, 7, 4))
# Thanksgivin…Generate Strong Random Passwords with Custom Rules in Python
Build a configurable password generator using Python's secrets module that lets you toggle lowercase, uppercase, digits, and punctuation.
import secrets
import string
def generate_password(length=16, use_lower=True, use_upper=True, use_digits=True, use_punct=True):
pool = ''
if use_lower:
pool += string.ascii_lowercase
if use_upper:
pool += string.ascii_uppercase
if use_digits:
pool += string.digits
if use_pu…Generate Strong SSH Keys and Save Them Securely with Python
Generate a 4096-bit RSA SSH key pair using Python's cryptography library and save both private and public keys with restricted file permissions.
import os
import stat
from pathlib import Path
from cryptography.hazmat.primitives import serialization
from cryptography.hazmat.primitives.asymmetric import rsa
from cryptography.hazmat.backends import default_backend
def generate_ssh_keypair(key_path: str = "id_rsa", passphrase: str = None):
"""Generate a 4096-…Generate a Monthly Report CSV from Log Files in Python
Reads a CSV log file, filters events by a given month, aggregates daily event counts and revenue, and writes a summarized monthly report to a new CSV.
import csv
from collections import defaultdict
from datetime import datetime
def generate_monthly_report(log_file: str, month: str, output_file: str) -> None:
events_by_date = defaultdict(int)
revenue_by_date = defaultdict(float)
with open(log_file, 'r') as f:
for line in f:
date_…How to Auto Organize Downloads by File Extension in Python
A Python script that sorts files in a directory into subfolders based on their file extensions, creating folders automatically.
import os
import shutil
from pathlib import Path
def organize_downloads(download_dir="~/Downloads"):
"""Move files in a directory into subfolders based on file extension."""
download_path = Path(download_dir).expanduser()
if not download_path.exists():
print(f"Directory not found: {download_p…Browse by section
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Automation & scripting — Python code examples
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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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