Automation & scripting
CLI tools, scheduled jobs, filesystem tasks, and glue scripts that save time.
Aggregate Log Errors Count by Hour in Python
Counts ERROR log lines per hour using regex and Counter, returning a sorted dictionary of hourly totals.
import re
from collections import Counter
from datetime import datetime
def aggregate_errors_by_hour(log_lines):
pattern = re.compile(r'^(\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2} \d{2}):\d{2}:\d{2}.*ERROR')
hourly_counts = Counter()
for line in log_lines:
match = pattern.match(line)
if match:
ho…
Build a Live Countdown Timer for Events in Python
A Python script that displays a real-time countdown to a target date and time, updating every second in the console.
import datetime
import time
def countdown(event_name, target_datetime):
"""Displays a live countdown to a target datetime."""
while True:
now = datetime.datetime.now()
remaining = target_datetime - now
if remaining.total_seconds() <= 0:
print(f"\n🚀 {event_name} is happening…
Build a Network Ping Monitor in Python
A Python script that continuously pings a remote host using subprocess and reports connectivity status with timestamps and latency.
import subprocess
import time
def ping_host(host, count=4):
"""Ping a host and return the results."""
try:
# Platform-independent ping command
cmd = ["ping", "-c", str(count), host]
result = subprocess.run(cmd, capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=10)
return result.stdout, r…
Build a Terminal Dashboard That Displays Real-Time System Performance in Python
A Python script that reads Linux system files to display a real-time terminal dashboard with CPU usage, memory usage, and CPU temperature.
import os, time, sys
from collections import deque
def get_cpu_temp():
try:
with open("/sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp") as f:
return round(int(f.read().strip()) / 1000, 1)
except:
return None
def get_mem_usage():
with open("/proc/meminfo") as f:
lines = f.readli…
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…
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 Random Fake User Data for Testing in Python
This code generates a list of fake user dictionaries with random names, emails, ages, and timestamps using the Python standard library for testing purposes.
import json
import random
import string
from datetime import datetime, timedelta
def generate_user_data(num_users=1):
first_names = ["Alice", "Bob", "Charlie", "Diana", "Eve"]
last_names = ["Smith", "Johnson", "Brown", "Taylor", "Wilson"]
domains = ["example.com", "test.org", "demo.net"]
users = …
How to Backup an SQLite Database with a Timestamp in Python
Backs up an SQLite database file to a timestamped copy using the sqlite3 backup API.
import sqlite3
import shutil
from datetime import datetime
from pathlib import Path
def backup_database(db_path: str, backup_dir: str = "backups") -> Path:
db = Path(db_path)
backup_folder = Path(backup_dir)
backup_folder.mkdir(exist_ok=True)
timestamp = datetime.now().strftime("%Y%m%d_%H%M%S")
…
How to Build a Cryptocurrency Price Tracker in Python
A continuous Python script that fetches real-time cryptocurrency prices from the CoinGecko API and displays them on a loop.
import requests
import time
def get_crypto_prices(coin_ids=["bitcoin", "ethereum", "solana"]):
url = "https://api.coingecko.com/api/v3/simple/price"
params = {
"ids": ",".join(coin_ids),
"vs_currencies": "usd"
}
try:
response = requests.get(url, params=params, timeout=10)
…
How to Filter Docker Containers for Pruning in Python
Simulate Docker's container prune by filtering a JSON list for exited containers older than a cutoff, returning pruned IDs and space freed.
import json
from datetime import datetime, timedelta
def parse_docker_ps(json_output: str, older_than_hours: int = 24) -> list:
containers = json.loads(json_output)
cutoff = datetime.now() - timedelta(hours=older_than_hours)
return [
c for c in containers
if datetime.fromisoformat(c["crea…
How to Find Stale GitHub Issues in Python
Filter a list of GitHub issues to find those not updated within a configurable number of days using Python datetime arithmetic.
import os
from datetime import datetime, timezone, timedelta
import re
# Simulated GitHub issue data structure
SAMPLE_ISSUES = [
{"number": 101, "title": "Login button not working", "updated_at": "2025-06-01T12:00:00Z", "assignee": "alice"},
{"number": 102, "title": "Fix database migration error", "updated_at…
How to Monitor Laptop Battery Health Over Time in Python
Log battery percentage, power status, and remaining time every N seconds to a JSON file using psutil for ongoing health monitoring.
import time
import json
from pathlib import Path
from datetime import datetime
try:
import psutil
except ImportError:
print("psutil required: pip install psutil")
exit(1)
LOG_FILE = Path("battery_health_log.json")
def monitor_battery(log_interval=60, duration=300):
"""Log battery percentage and rema…
How to generate website performance reports from HTTP requests in Python
Measure and report website load time, status code, and content size using Python's standard library.
import urllib.request
import time
def measure_website_load_time(url):
"""Measures total loading time of a website."""
start_time = time.time()
try:
with urllib.request.urlopen(url, timeout=10) as response:
content = response.read()
status_code = response.status
…
Monitor Website Uptime with Python
Periodically check if a website is reachable and its HTTP status is 200, logging the status with timestamps.
import requests
import time
def check_website(url):
try:
response = requests.get(url, timeout=5)
if response.status_code == 200:
return True
else:
return False
except requests.ConnectionError:
return False
except requests.Timeout:
return Fals…
Parse WHOIS Data with Python Regex
Extract domain registration fields from a mock WHOIS record using regex and compute days until expiration.
import re
from datetime import datetime
def parse_whois(whois_text: str) -> dict:
"""Extract key registration fields from a mock WHOIS record."""
patterns = {
"domain": r"Domain Name:\s*(.+)",
"registrar": r"Registrar:\s*(.+)",
"creation_date": r"Creation Date:\s*(.+)",
"expir…
Parse cron expression and compute next run datetime in Python
Parse a 5-field cron expression and compute the next matching datetime starting from a given base time.
from datetime import datetime, timedelta
import re
def parse_cron_and_next_run(cron_expr, base_time=None):
"""Parse a cron expression and compute the next run time."""
if base_time is None:
base_time = datetime.now().replace(second=0, microsecond=0)
fields = cron_expr.split()
if len(fields) !…
Schedule Daily Task in Python
Use the schedule library to queue a daily task at a fixed time, then simulate a loop that checks for pending jobs.
import schedule
import time
from datetime import datetime
def daily_task():
print(f"Task executed at {datetime.now().strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')}")
schedule.every().day.at("10:30").do(daily_task)
if __name__ == "__main__":
for _ in range(3):
schedule.run_pending()
time.sleep(1)
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 …
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