[Tutor] basic python question/getting values

[Kent Johnson]

Joe M wrote:
> I have a few scripts that will return a value ie here I am testing to see 
> if a database is alive (script is called dbping.py):
> 
> def db_alive():
>  	dbRunning = '0'
>  	try:
>  		con = pg.connect(dbname='xxx', host='localhost', user 
> ='xxx',port = xxx)
>  	pass
>  	except pg.InternalError:
>  		dbRunning = '1'
>  	return dbRunning
> 
> This should return a value of 1 if the db is not running else it will 
> return a value of 0.
> 
> Ok, now I want to call this from another script and have it write 
> to a file with the return value (and other values to be added later, but 
> right now all I am interested in in getting the return values)
> 
> I tried this sort of thing but it doesn't work (I will be writing to a 
> file later, but right now getting it to print the value of dbRunning would 
> be nice)
> 
> import dbping
> l = dbping.db_run(db_run.dbRunning)
> print l
> 
> NameError: name 'db_run' is not defined

What is db_run? What happens if you try
l = dbping.db_alive()

??

Kent