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Modern Python Cookbook

You're reading from   Modern Python Cookbook The latest in modern Python recipes for the busy modern programmer

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Product type Paperback
Published in Nov 2016
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781786469250
Length 692 pages
Edition 1st Edition
Languages
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Toc

Table of Contents (12) Chapters Close

Preface 1. Numbers, Strings, and Tuples 2. Statements and Syntax FREE CHAPTER 3. Function Definitions 4. Built-in Data Structures ā€“ list, set, dict 5. User Inputs and Outputs 6. Basics of Classes and Objects 7. More Advanced Class Design 8. Input/Output, Physical Format, and Logical Layout 9. Testing 10. Web Services 11. Application Integration

Replacing a file while preserving the previous version


We can leverage the power of pathlib to support a variety of filename manipulations. In the Using pathlib to work with filenames recipe, we looked at a few of the most common techniques of managing directories, filenames, and file suffixes.

One common file processing requirement is to create output files in a fail-safe manner. That is, the application should preserve any previous output file no matter how or where the application fails.

Consider the following scenario:

  1. At time t0 there's a valid output.csv file from yesterday's use of the long_complex.py application.
  2. At timeĀ t1 we start running the long_complex.py application. It begins overwriting the output.csv file. It is expected to finish normally at time t3.
  3. At time t2, the application crashes. The partial output.csv file is useless. Worse, the valid file from timeĀ t0 is not available either, since it was overwritten.

Clearly, we can make backup copies of files. This introduces an extra...

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