[Tutor] First real program

[Mr 804]

Hello,

  I'm trying to write a small python script to do some checks
on a unix password file. I've run into a stubling block. I think I don't
understand list 100%. I've included my code with commends on the problem
part.

******************************************
import sys
import string
import re

### open files read it in 1 line at a time 

print "Loading the password file."
try:
	f = open('/etc/passwd','r')
	s = f.readlines()
	f.close()
	print "loaded."
	print ""
except IOError:
	print "can't open the password file. Quiting."
	sys.exit()
### How many elements do we got?
t = len(s) 
print "There are %d lines." % t
## sort it
s.sort()
# Clean the file up. Don't need no white space before or after
# also convert everything to lower case.

list = []
name = []

for i in s:
	i = string.lower(string.rstrip(string.strip(i)))
	list.append(i)
	name.append(string.splitfields(i,":"))
^--

  This part should make everything lower case, strip white space. 
   name[] should be a list of NAMES, but I don't think I'm doing that
  correctly? I want the user name and no othe fields after the first
  : . ? if I did print name[0] it should print the first name in the
  password file. but it's just printing the while line.