File tests in Python

[Joakim Hove]

Hello,

I have just bought "Learning Python" by Mark Lutz and David Ascher,
and browsed quickly through it. I like both the book and my first
impression of Python very good.

Previously I have used Perl quite a lot - but I never really got the
hang of more "complex" datastructures in Perl. Writing 

   List = [1,2,["List","in","List"]]
 
in Python is just the way it _should_ be, really nice!


However, there are two (at least right now) things I have enjoyed in
Perl which I have not found equivalents of in Python.

First Perl has an assorted set of file-test like this:

$file = "myfile";
if (-x $file) {
        print "The file \"$file\" is executable \n";
} else {
        print "Sorry - can't run \"$file\" \n";
}        

How would I do this and related (is a directory/symbolic
link/binary/..) tests in Python?



Secondly a correct Perl-installation comes with a very neat program
called perldoc - which is used to access the Perl
documentation. Typing for instance:

 bash% perldoc -f localtime

gives you the documentation for the localtime() function - very
convenient! I know this is not a property of Perl - the programming
language, but nevertheless, do I have access to something like this
from python? [Standard Linux install of Python - using emacs as
editor].


Joakim Hove


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