I wanted the system to send me a mail every month the updates it has for the packages, i tried using subprocess.Popen, thought to redirect the output to stdin and write it to a file, but it was terrible…something which i  could do easily in bash

        apt-get -V upgrade > upgrade.log

after much of research I stumbled across python-apt http://www.wwclass.com/doc/python-apt/html/ and ola it worked like charm!!! below is the script..

        #!/usr/bin/env python
        import subprocess
        import smtplib
        from datetime import datetime
        from datetime import timedelta
        import os
        import apt
        from apt.package import Version
        cache=apt.Cache()
        cache.update()
        cache.upgrade()
        for pkg in cache.get_changes():
        print pkg.name,  pkg.summary
        fileHandle = open(‘/tmp/upgrade.log’, ‘a’)
        fileHandle.write(pkg.name + ” – ” + pkg.summary + “\n”)
        now = datetime.now()
        t = timedelta(7)
        v = now + t
        datestr = str(v.date())
        SERVER = “localhost”
        FROM = “server@server.localhost”
        TO = ["alpha@krisindigitalage.com"] # must be a list
        body = open(“/tmp/upgrade.log”)
        TEXT = body.read()
        SUBJECT = “Hello!”
        CUSTOM = “dear admin\n \t\tThe following upgrades are available for your server \n\n”
        # Prepare actual message
        END = “\n\nThe updates will be scheduled on ” + datestr + ” . Let me know by 5pm on that date if you wish to make any changes \n\n Kind regards\n Your Server”
        TEXT1 = CUSTOM + TEXT + END
        message = “”"\
        From: %s
        To: %s
        Subject: %s
        %s
        “”" % (FROM, “, “.join(TO), SUBJECT, TEXT1)
        # Send the mail
        server = smtplib.SMTP(SERVER)
        server.sendmail(FROM, TO, message)
        server.quit()
        os.remove(‘/tmp/upgrade.log’)

#!/usr/bin/env python

import sys

def generate_log_report(logfile):
    for line in logfile:
        line_split = line.split()
        list = [line_split[0], line_split[1], line_split[2], line_split[4]]
        if “named” in list[3]:
            l = [line_split[0], line_split[1], line_split[2], line_split[4]]
            print l
        else:
            li = [line_split[0], line_split[1], line_split[2], line_split[4]]
   
#    return l

if __name__ == “__main__”:
    if not len(sys.argv) > 1:
        print __doc__
        sys.exit(1)
    infile_name = sys.argv[1]
    try:
        infile = open(infile_name, “r”)
    except IOError:
        print “you must specify a valid file”
        print __doc__
        sys.exit(1)
    log_report = generate_log_report(infile)
    print log_report
    infile.close()

generating graphs using cairo was relatively very easy, i ran this on a debian box. First you need to install “bazaar”

root@server:/usr/src/python# apt-get install bzr

you might need python-cairo and other dependencies..

root@server:/usr/src/python# apt-get install python-cairo python-cairo-dev python-cairo-dbg python-pycha python-gasp python-docky

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An example on how to use python’s subprocess.Popen function:

#!/usr/bin/env python

import subprocess
import os
#import pdb; pdb.set_trace()

def find():
    y = raw_input(“Enter a text you want to search on the system!”)
    s = y.rstrip(“\n”)
    print “string”, s
#    command = “find /bin -name ” + str(y)
#    arg = ['/usr/bin/find', '/bin', '-name', s '-print']
#    print “command”, command
    find = subprocess.Popen([r"/usr/bin/find", "/", "-name", y, "-print"], stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
    #find_stdout = find.communicate()[0]
    #print (find_stdout)
    for line in find.stdout.readlines():    
        print “line”, line
        l = line.rstrip(“\n”)    
        list = subprocess.Popen([r"ls", "-l", l], stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
        list_stdout = list.communicate()[0]
        print list_stdout
        file = subprocess.Popen([r"file", l], stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
        file_stdout = file.communicate()[0]
        print file_stdout
    

def main():
    find()

main()

#!/usr/bin/env python

from subprocess import Popen, PIPE, STDOUT
import subprocess
import os
import popen2

def memory():
    print “gathering memory info…”
    subprocess.call(“free”, shell=True)

def cpu():
    print “gathering system uptime info… “
    subprocess.call(“uptime”, shell=True)

def pci():
    print “gathering pci devices..”
    subprocess.call(“lspci”, shell=True)

def apache():
    print “calculating apache mem use..”
    sum = 0.0
    command = os.popen(“ps aux | grep apache | awk ‘{print $4}’”)
    for i in command.readlines():
        l = i.rstrip(“\n”)
        d = float(l)
        sum = d + sum
    print sum

def exim():
    print “calculating exim mem use…”
    esum = 0.0
    ecommand = os.popen(“ps aux | grep -v grep | grep exim | awk ‘{print $4}’”)
    for e in ecommand.readlines():
        f = e.rstrip(“\n”)
        g = float(f)
        esum = g + esum
    print esum
def spam():
    print “calculating spamd mem use..”
    ssum = 0.0
    spamd = os.popen(“ps aux | grep spamd | awk ‘{print $4}’”)
    for s in spamd.readlines():
        t = s.rstrip(“\n”)
        u = float(t)
        ssum = u + ssum
    print ssum

def log():
    print “logged in users…”
    subprocess.call(“last| grep ‘still’”, shell=True)

def main():
    memory()
    cpu()
#    pci()
    apache()
    spam()
    exim()
    log()
main()