Automation & scripting
CLI tools, scheduled jobs, filesystem tasks, and glue scripts that save time.
Automatically Clean Temporary Files from Applications Using Python
A Python script that safely deletes temporary files from common application temp directories across Windows, Linux, and macOS, tracking cleaned count and disk space.
import os
import shutil
import tempfile
import platform
def clean_application_temp_files():
"""Delete common temporary file locations safely."""
system = platform.system()
temp_dirs = []
if system == "Windows":
temp_dirs.extend([
os.path.join(os.getenv("LOCALAPPDATA"), "Temp"),
…Automatically Download the Latest Software Release from GitHub with Python
Use the GitHub API to fetch the latest release metadata and download the first asset (binary or archive) to a local directory.
import requests
import sys
from pathlib import Path
def download_latest_release(owner: str, repo: str, output_dir: str = ".") -> None:
"""Download the latest release asset from a GitHub repository."""
url = f"https://api.github.com/repos/{owner}/{repo}/releases/latest"
response = requests.get(url)
res…Automatically Generate Charts from CSV Files with One Command
Read a CSV file with headers, extract the first two numeric columns, and save a matplotlib line chart as a PNG image.
import csv
import sys
from pathlib import Path
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
def generate_chart(csv_path: str) -> None:
"""Read a CSV file with headers and plot the first two numeric columns."""
data = []
with open(csv_path, 'r', newline='') as f:
reader = csv.reader(f)
headers = next(re…Automatically Generate Hardware Inventory Reports in Python
Generate a system hardware report including OS version, CPU cores, RAM, and disk usage using platform and psutil.
import platform
import psutil # requires: pip install psutil
from datetime import datetime
def generate_hardware_report():
report_lines = []
report_lines.append(f"Report Generated: {datetime.now().strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')}")
report_lines.append(f"System: {platform.system()} {platform.release()} ({pl…Automatically Log CPU, RAM, and Disk Usage Every Minute in Python
This script logs CPU, RAM, and disk usage to a CSV file every 60 seconds using psutil and Python's standard library.
import psutil
import time
import csv
from pathlib import Path
LOG_FILE = Path("system_usage_log.csv")
INTERVAL_SECONDS = 60
def log_system_usage():
"""Write CPU, RAM, and disk usage to CSV every minute."""
file_exists = LOG_FILE.exists()
with open(LOG_FILE, mode="a", newline="") as f:
writer = cs…Batch Rename Hundreds of Files in Python
Rename all files with a given extension inside a folder using a sequential counter and a custom prefix.
import os
from pathlib import Path
def batch_rename_files(directory: str, prefix: str, extension: str = ".txt") -> None:
"""Rename all files with given extension in directory to prefix_{counter}.ext."""
path = Path(directory)
if not path.is_dir():
print(f"Directory '{directory}' does not exist.")
…Benchmark File Read and Write Speed in Python
Measures file write and read throughput in MB/s by writing and reading a temporary file of a given size.
import os
import time
import tempfile
def benchmark_write(file_path, size_mb=100):
data = b'x' * (1024 * 1024) # 1 MB block
start = time.perf_counter()
with open(file_path, 'wb') as f:
for _ in range(size_mb):
f.write(data)
elapsed = time.perf_counter() - start
return size_mb …Build a Command-Line Password Generator in Python
Generate cryptographically strong random passwords using Python's secrets module and print them for command-line use.
import secrets
import string
def generate_password(length=16):
"""Generate a cryptographically strong random password."""
alphabet = string.ascii_letters + string.digits + string.punctuation
password = ''.join(secrets.choice(alphabet) for _ in range(length))
return password
if __name__ == "__main__":…Build a Complete Web Scraper with Requests and BeautifulSoup in Python
Scrape multiple paginated pages from a website using Requests and BeautifulSoup, with retry logic, error handling, and CSV export.
import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
import csv
import time
from typing import List, Dict, Optional
class WebScraper:
def __init__(self, base_url: str, output_file: str = "scraped_data.csv"):
self.base_url = base_url
self.output_file = output_file
self.session = requests.Session()…Build a Complete Website Sitemap Generator Without External Services
Crawl a website recursively using only Python's standard library to generate a structured sitemap of internal links.
import json
from urllib.parse import urlparse, urljoin
from collections import deque
import urllib.request
import urllib.error
import re
from html.parser import HTMLParser
class SitemapParser(HTMLParser):
def __init__(self, base_url):
super().__init__()
self.base_url = base_url
self.links …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 Python Tool to Find All API Endpoints on a Website
A Python script that crawls a website, searches for common API endpoint patterns in HTML and JavaScript, and returns all discovered public API URLs.
import re
import requests
from urllib.parse import urljoin, urlparse
from collections import deque
def find_api_endpoints(base_url, max_pages=10):
visited = set()
queue = deque([base_url])
api_endpoints = set()
api_patterns = [
r'/api/[a-zA-Z0-9_/-]+',
r'/v[0-9]+/[a-zA-Z0-9_/-]+',…Build a Python Utility That Verifies Backup Integrity Automatically
Automatically compute and verify SHA-256 checksums of backup files using a JSON manifest to detect missing or corrupted data.
import hashlib
import os
import json
def compute_checksum(filepath, algorithm='sha256'):
"""Compute checksum for the given file."""
hash_func = hashlib.new(algorithm)
with open(filepath, 'rb') as f:
for chunk in iter(lambda: f.read(4096), b''):
hash_func.update(chunk)
return hash_f…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…Build a Website Accessibility Scanner Using Python
Scans a webpage for common accessibility issues like missing alt text, headings, labels, and landmarks using only Python.
import requests
from urllib.parse import urljoin
from html.parser import HTMLParser
import re
class AccessibilityParser(HTMLParser):
def __init__(self):
super().__init__()
self.images_without_alt = []
self.missing_headings = True
self.has_main_tag = False
self.label_for_inp…Convert HTML Tables to Excel Reports in Python
Convert HTML tables into formatted Excel reports using BeautifulSoup and Pandas with auto-adjusted column widths.
import pandas as pd
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
from pathlib import Path
def html_table_to_excel(html_file: str, excel_file: str) -> None:
"""Convert HTML table to formatted Excel report."""
with open(html_file, 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
html_content = f.read()
soup = BeautifulSoup(html_…Create a Local Search Engine to Instantly Find Files on Your Computer in Python
Build a local file search engine in Python that indexes files by name, extension, and glob pattern for instant retrieval.
import os
import sys
import time
from pathlib import Path
import fnmatch
class LocalSearchEngine:
def __init__(self, root_directory="."):
self.root_directory = Path(root_directory)
self.file_index = {}
def build_index(self):
"""Build a complete index of files in the root direc…Create a Python Script That Detects Website Technology Stack Automatically
This script sends an HTTP request to a URL and inspects headers and HTML content to identify technologies like servers, frameworks, and JavaScript libraries.
import requests
from re import search
def detect_tech_stack(url):
tech_stack = []
try:
response = requests.get(url, timeout=5, headers={'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0'})
headers = response.headers
html = response.text.lower() if response.text else ''
# Check server header
…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…Browse by section
Each section groups closely related Python snippets.
Automation & scripting — Python code examples
What you will find here
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.
Samples vs tutorials and challenges
Samples are quick reference — one concept per page. For step-by-step teaching, use our Python tutorials. To test yourself, try quizzes or coding challenges. Clean up style with the Python formatter.