Raw strings as input from File?

[utabintarbo]

On Nov 24, 3:27 pm, MRAB <pyt... at mrabarnett.plus.com> wrote:
>
> .readlines() doesn't change the "\10" in a file to "\x08" in the string
> it returns.
>
> Could you provide some code which shows your problem?

Here is the code block I have so far:
for l in open(CONTENTS, 'r').readlines():
    f = os.path.splitext(os.path.split(l.split('->')[0]))[0]
    if f in os.listdir(DIR1) and os.path.isdir(os.path.join(DIR1,f)):
        shutil.rmtree(os.path.join(DIR1,f))
	if f in os.listdir(DIR2) and os.path.isdir(os.path.join(DIR2,f)):
		shutil.rmtree(os.path.join(DIR2,f))

I am trying to find dirs with the basename of the initial path less
the extension in both DIR1 and DIR2

A minimally obfuscated line from the log file:
K:\sm\SMI\des\RS\Pat\10DJ\121.D5-30\1215B-B-D5-BSHOE-MM.smz->/arch_m1/
smi/des/RS/Pat/10DJ/121.D5-30\1215B-B-D5-BSHOE-MM.smz ; t9480rc ;
11/24/2009 08:16:42 ; 1259068602

What I get from the debugger/python shell:
'K:\\sm\\SMI\\des\\RS\\Pat\x08DJQ.D5-30Q5B-B-D5-BSHOE-MM.smz->/arch_m1/
smi/des/RS/Pat/10DJ/121.D5-30/1215B-B-D5-BSHOE-MM.smz ; t9480rc ;
11/24/2009 08:16:42 ; 1259068602'

TIA