Can't get sys.stdin.readlines() to work

[Richard Thomas]

On Jan 31, 6:15 pm, tinn... at isbd.co.uk wrote:
> I'm trying to read some data from standard input, what I'm actually
> trying to do is process some date pasted in using the mouse cut and
> paste on a Linux box (xubuntu 9.10) in a terminal window.
>
> First attempts failed so I'm now trying the trivial:-
>
>     import sys
>     data = sys.stdin.readlines()
>     print "Counted", len(data), "lines."
>
> When I run this and try to paste something into the terminal window I
> get the following errors:-
>
>     /home/chris/bin/m2r.py: line 2: syntax error near unexpected token `('
>     /home/chris/bin/m2r.py: line 2: `data = sys.stdin.readlines()'
>
> It does exactly the same if I try:-
>
>     cat | m2r.py
>
> and then paste something into the window.
>
> So - what on earth am I doing wrong?
>
> --
> Chris Green

You haven't put a shebang line at the top.

#!/usr/bin/env python
import sys
data = sys.stdin.readlines()
...