newbie: strange python problem

[Skip Montanaro]

    maxx> #!/usr/bin/python

    maxx> import os

    maxx> for line in os.popen('ls -la /').readlines():
    maxx>     direntry = line.split()
    maxx>     print direntry
    maxx>     print direntry[0]
    maxx>     print direntry[1]
    maxx>     print direntry[2]
    maxx> ---

    maxx> No list-items with an index above 1 are printed. They produce a
    maxx> 'IndexError: list index out of range' error... which is strange,
    maxx> because the list 'direntry' is 9 items large, so listitems up to
    maxx> index 8 should be printed... right?

Note that you are munch on the precise output of ls -la /, which includes
the summary line at the start of the listing, not just the directory entries
themselves.

Try os.listdir("/") instead:

    >>> print os.listdir("/")
    ['.DS_Store', '.hidden', '.Trashes', '.vol', 'Applications',
    'Applications (Mac OS 9)', 'automount', 'backup', 'bin', 'cores',
    'Desktop (Mac OS 9)', 'Desktop DB', 'Desktop DF', 'Desktop Folder',
    'dev', 'Developer', 'Documents', 'etc', 'include', 'Installer Log File',
    'Library', 'mach', 'mach.sym', 'mach_kernel', 'Network', 'private',
    'sbin', 'Shutdown Check', 'STV0680 Camera Snapshots', 'sw', 'System',
    'System Folder', 'Temporary Items', 'TheVolumeSettingsFolder', 'tmp',
    'Trash', 'Users', 'usr', 'var', 'Volumes'] 

That will only give you the names, but you can then call os.stat for each
entry to get the other information in the ls listing.

Skip