
``fileinput`` --- Iterate over lines from multiple input streams
****************************************************************

This module implements a helper class and functions to quickly write a
loop over standard input or a list of files. If you just want to read
or write one file see ``open()``.

The typical use is:

   import fileinput
   for line in fileinput.input():
       process(line)

This iterates over the lines of all files listed in ``sys.argv[1:]``,
defaulting to ``sys.stdin`` if the list is empty.  If a filename is
``'-'``, it is also replaced by ``sys.stdin``.  To specify an
alternative list of filenames, pass it as the first argument to
``input()``.  A single file name is also allowed.

All files are opened in text mode by default, but you can override
this by specifying the *mode* parameter in the call to ``input()`` or
``FileInput()``.  If an I/O error occurs during opening or reading a
file, ``IOError`` is raised.

If ``sys.stdin`` is used more than once, the second and further use
will return no lines, except perhaps for interactive use, or if it has
been explicitly reset (e.g. using ``sys.stdin.seek(0)``).

Empty files are opened and immediately closed; the only time their
presence in the list of filenames is noticeable at all is when the
last file opened is empty.

Lines are returned with any newlines intact, which means that the last
line in a file may not have one.

You can control how files are opened by providing an opening hook via
the *openhook* parameter to ``fileinput.input()`` or ``FileInput()``.
The hook must be a function that takes two arguments, *filename* and
*mode*, and returns an accordingly opened file-like object. Two useful
hooks are already provided by this module.

See also:

   Latest version of the fileinput Python source code

The following function is the primary interface of this module:

fileinput.input([files[, inplace[, backup[, mode[, openhook]]]]])

   Create an instance of the ``FileInput`` class.  The instance will
   be used as global state for the functions of this module, and is
   also returned to use during iteration.  The parameters to this
   function will be passed along to the constructor of the
   ``FileInput`` class.

   Changed in version 2.5: Added the *mode* and *openhook* parameters.

The following functions use the global state created by
``fileinput.input()``; if there is no active state, ``RuntimeError``
is raised.

fileinput.filename()

   Return the name of the file currently being read.  Before the first
   line has been read, returns ``None``.

fileinput.fileno()

   Return the integer "file descriptor" for the current file. When no
   file is opened (before the first line and between files), returns
   ``-1``.

   New in version 2.5.

fileinput.lineno()

   Return the cumulative line number of the line that has just been
   read.  Before the first line has been read, returns ``0``.  After
   the last line of the last file has been read, returns the line
   number of that line.

fileinput.filelineno()

   Return the line number in the current file.  Before the first line
   has been read, returns ``0``.  After the last line of the last file
   has been read, returns the line number of that line within the
   file.

fileinput.isfirstline()

   Returns true if the line just read is the first line of its file,
   otherwise returns false.

fileinput.isstdin()

   Returns true if the last line was read from ``sys.stdin``,
   otherwise returns false.

fileinput.nextfile()

   Close the current file so that the next iteration will read the
   first line from the next file (if any); lines not read from the
   file will not count towards the cumulative line count.  The
   filename is not changed until after the first line of the next file
   has been read.  Before the first line has been read, this function
   has no effect; it cannot be used to skip the first file.  After the
   last line of the last file has been read, this function has no
   effect.

fileinput.close()

   Close the sequence.

The class which implements the sequence behavior provided by the
module is available for subclassing as well:

class class fileinput.FileInput([files[, inplace[, backup[, mode[, openhook]]]]])

   Class ``FileInput`` is the implementation; its methods
   ``filename()``, ``fileno()``, ``lineno()``, ``filelineno()``,
   ``isfirstline()``, ``isstdin()``, ``nextfile()`` and ``close()``
   correspond to the functions of the same name in the module. In
   addition it has a ``readline()`` method which returns the next
   input line, and a ``__getitem__()`` method which implements the
   sequence behavior.  The sequence must be accessed in strictly
   sequential order; random access and ``readline()`` cannot be mixed.

   With *mode* you can specify which file mode will be passed to
   ``open()``. It must be one of ``'r'``, ``'rU'``, ``'U'`` and
   ``'rb'``.

   The *openhook*, when given, must be a function that takes two
   arguments, *filename* and *mode*, and returns an accordingly opened
   file-like object. You cannot use *inplace* and *openhook* together.

   Changed in version 2.5: Added the *mode* and *openhook* parameters.

**Optional in-place filtering:** if the keyword argument ``inplace=1``
is passed to ``fileinput.input()`` or to the ``FileInput``
constructor, the file is moved to a backup file and standard output is
directed to the input file (if a file of the same name as the backup
file already exists, it will be replaced silently).  This makes it
possible to write a filter that rewrites its input file in place.  If
the *backup* parameter is given (typically as ``backup='.<some
extension>'``), it specifies the extension for the backup file, and
the backup file remains around; by default, the extension is
``'.bak'`` and it is deleted when the output file is closed.  In-place
filtering is disabled when standard input is read.

Note: The current implementation does not work for MS-DOS 8+3 filesystems.

The two following opening hooks are provided by this module:

fileinput.hook_compressed(filename, mode)

   Transparently opens files compressed with gzip and bzip2
   (recognized by the extensions ``'.gz'`` and ``'.bz2'``) using the
   ``gzip`` and ``bz2`` modules.  If the filename extension is not
   ``'.gz'`` or ``'.bz2'``, the file is opened normally (ie, using
   ``open()`` without any decompression).

   Usage example:  ``fi =
   fileinput.FileInput(openhook=fileinput.hook_compressed)``

   New in version 2.5.

fileinput.hook_encoded(encoding)

   Returns a hook which opens each file with ``codecs.open()``, using
   the given *encoding* to read the file.

   Usage example: ``fi = fileinput.FileInput(openhook=fileinput.hook_e
   ncoded("iso-8859-1"))``

   Note: With this hook, ``FileInput`` might return Unicode strings
     depending on the specified *encoding*.

   New in version 2.5.
