[Tutor] Python working with Bash....arrrggggh!

[Ray Jones]

As I code Python, I find myself falling back on Bash to handle basic OS
tasks. How do you gurus deal with Python --> Bash conflicts?

For example, if I wish to test if a file exists, I might do

test = Popen('[ -f file-i-want-to-test-for ]')

But the moment I invoke Bash for a test, I must deal with the fact that
Bash returns a zero for true and a non-zero for false. But in Python,
zero is false and non-zero is true. So if the file exists, the variable
'test' will be zero since that is what was returned by Bash. But if I
want to test the variable for the existence of the file, I have to test
the opposite: 'if not test:' because Python sees the zero as False.

Does it become second nature to work with these conflicts? Or do you
find it more expedient bypass the OS shell and work almost exclusively
with Python?


Ray