Automation & scripting
CLI tools, scheduled jobs, filesystem tasks, and glue scripts that save time.
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 Beautiful Project Documentation from Python Source Code Automatically
Automatically generate a markdown summary of function docstrings from any Python source file using the AST module.
import ast
import inspect
from pathlib import Path
def extract_docstrings_from_file(filepath):
"""Parse a Python file and collect function docstrings."""
source = Path(filepath).read_text()
tree = ast.parse(source)
docs = []
for node in ast.walk(tree):
if isinstance(node, (ast.FunctionDef…
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 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-…
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 Build a Python Tool That Finds Trending Open Source Projects Daily
A Python script that queries the GitHub Search API to fetch the top 5 trending repositories created in the last day, sorted by stars, with optional language filtering.
import requests
import json
import datetime
def fetch_trending_projects(language: str = "", since: str = "daily"):
url = "https://api.github.com/search/repositories"
date_limit = (datetime.date.today() - datetime.timedelta(days=1)).isoformat()
query = f"created:>{date_limit} language:{language}" if langua…
How to Compare Two GitHub Repositories and Highlight Differences in Python
Fetch metadata from two GitHub repositories using the GitHub API and compare key attributes like stars, forks, license, and language, printing any differences.
import requests
import json
from pathlib import Path
def fetch_repo_data(owner, repo_name):
"""Fetch repository metadata from GitHub API."""
url = f"https://api.github.com/repos/{owner}/{repo_name}"
response = requests.get(url)
response.raise_for_status()
return response.json()
def compare_repos(…
How to Create a Link Graph Visualization for Any Website in Python
A Python script that crawls a website's internal links, builds a directed graph of parent-child URL relationships, and prints the graph to the console.
import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
from collections import defaultdict
from urllib.parse import urljoin, urlparse
import sys
def get_links(url, max_links=20):
try:
response = requests.get(url, timeout=5)
soup = BeautifulSoup(response.text, 'html.parser')
base_url = f"{urlparse(u…
How to Detect Applications Consuming Excessive Memory in Python
Use psutil to list the top memory-using processes by RSS and print their names, PIDs, and memory usage in MB.
import psutil
def find_top_memory_processes(limit=5):
"""Return top `limit` processes by memory usage (RSS)."""
processes = []
for proc in psutil.process_iter(['pid', 'name', 'memory_info']):
try:
info = proc.info
mem = info['memory_info'].rss if info['memory_info'] else 0…
How to Detect Network Interface Changes in Python
Monitor active network interfaces and print a message when an interface is added or removed using psutil and socket.
import socket
import psutil
import time
def get_network_interfaces():
"""Return a set of currently active interface names."""
active_ifaces = set()
for iface, addrs in psutil.net_if_addrs().items():
for addr in addrs:
if addr.family == socket.AF_INET: # IPv4 address present
…
How to Detect Recently Installed Software in Python
Uses subprocess to call pip and parse package metadata to list recently installed Python packages.
import subprocess
import sys
from datetime import datetime, timedelta
def detect_recently_installed(days=7):
"""Detect recently installed software packages."""
recent_packages = []
cutoff_date = datetime.now() - timedelta(days=days)
try:
# For pip-installed packages (Python packages)
…
How to Detect Unused Images in a Project with Python
A Python script that scans a website project folder, identifies all image files, and checks HTML/CSS/JS files to find which images are never referenced.
import os
import re
from pathlib import Path
def find_unused_images(project_path):
image_exts = {'.png', '.jpg', '.jpeg', '.gif', '.svg', '.webp'}
used_images = set()
all_images = set()
# Find all image files
for root, _, files in os.walk(project_path):
for file in files:
…
How to Download All Assets from GitHub Releases in Python
Downloads every asset attached to the latest GitHub release of a repository, saving them locally using the GitHub API and Python's requests and pathlib libraries.
import requests
import os
import zipfile
from pathlib import Path
def download_github_release_assets(owner: str, repo: str, output_dir: str = "release_assets") -> None:
"""Downloads all assets from the latest release of a GitHub repository."""
releases_url = f"https://api.github.com/repos/{owner}/{repo}/relea…
How to Download a GitHub Repository as a ZIP File in Python
Download any public GitHub repository as a ZIP file using the GitHub API and Python's requests and zipfile modules.
import requests
import zipfile
import io
import os
def download_github_repo_as_zip(repo_url, output_path='.'):
"""
Download a GitHub repository as a ZIP file.
Args:
repo_url (str): Full GitHub repository URL (e.g., 'https://github.com/username/repo')
output_path (str): Directory to sa…
How to Generate Project Statistics Including Lines of Code and Complexity in Python
Walk through a Python script that scans a project directory for Python files, counts lines of code excluding blanks and comments, and estimates cyclomatic complexity by counting decision keywords.
import os
from pathlib import Path
def count_lines_of_code(filepath):
"""Counts lines of code in a Python file, excluding blank lines and comments."""
try:
with open(filepath, 'r') as f:
lines = f.readlines()
code_lines = [line for line in lines if line.strip() and not line.strip()…
How to Generate a Dependency Graph for Python Projects
This script walks through a Python project directory, parses each .py file's imports, and prints a dependency graph showing which modules depend on which other modules.
import os
import ast
from pathlib import Path
from collections import defaultdict
def get_imports(filepath):
with open(filepath) as f:
try:
tree = ast.parse(f.read())
except SyntaxError:
return []
imports = []
for node in ast.walk(tree):
if isinstance(node, …
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 Monitor USB Device Connections in Python
A Python utility that monitors USB device connections and disconnections by comparing output of the lsusb command at regular intervals.
import time
import subprocess
import os
def get_usb_devices():
"""Return list of currently connected USB devices (Linux)."""
try:
result = subprocess.run(['lsusb'], capture_output=True, text=True, check=True)
return result.stdout.strip().split('\n')
except (subprocess.CalledProcessError, F…
How to Monitor Website Content Changes in Python
This script fetches a webpage's content, computes its SHA-256 hash, and compares it with the last stored hash to detect and alert on changes.
import time
import hashlib
import requests
from pathlib import Path
def fetch_content_hash(url: str) -> str:
response = requests.get(url, timeout=10)
response.raise_for_status()
return hashlib.sha256(response.text.encode()).hexdigest()
def monitor_website(url: str, check_interval: int = 60):
hash_fil…
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