truncating a file from the top down

[rbt]

Hi guys,

I need to truncate a file from the top down. I imagine doing something
like this:

if os.stat says the file is too big:
read the file
trim = only keep the last 2008 bytes (This is where I get stuck)
write trim back out to the original file

Would someone demonstrate the *best* most efficient way of doing this?

Thanks,
rbt

[Mike Rovner]

rbt wrote:

if os.stat says the file is too big:
read the file
trim = only keep the last 2008 bytes (This is where I get stuck)
write trim back out to the original file

Would someone demonstrate the *best* most efficient way of doing this?

if os.stat says the_file is too big:
fh = open(the_file, 'rb')
fh.seek(2008, 2)
data = fh.read()
fh.close()
assert len(data)==2008 # you may want some error processing here
fh = open(the_file, 'wb')
fh.write(data)
fh.close()

/m

[Fredrik Lundh]

Mike Rovner wrote:

if os.stat says the_file is too big:
fh = open(the_file, 'rb')
fh.seek(2008, 2)
should be

fh.seek(-2008, 2)

right?
data = fh.read()
fh.close()
assert len(data)==2008 # you may want some error processing here
fh = open(the_file, 'wb')
fh.write(data)
fh.close()

or

if os.path.getsize(the_file) > TOO_BIG:
fh = open(the_file, 'rb+')
fh.seek(-2008, 2)
data = fh.read()
fh.seek(0) # rewind
fh.write(data)
fh.truncate()
fh.close()

</F>

[Mike Rovner]

Right. Thanks for the correction.

Fredrik Lundh wrote:

Mike Rovner wrote:

if os.stat says the_file is too big:
fh = open(the_file, 'rb')
fh.seek(2008, 2)

should be

fh.seek(-2008, 2)

right?

data = fh.read()
fh.close()
assert len(data)==2008 # you may want some error processing here
fh = open(the_file, 'wb')
fh.write(data)
fh.close()

or

if os.path.getsize(the_file) > TOO_BIG:
fh = open(the_file, 'rb+')
fh.seek(-2008, 2)
data = fh.read()
fh.seek(0) # rewind
fh.write(data)
fh.truncate()
fh.close()

</F>

[rbt]

Mike Rovner wrote:

Right. Thanks for the correction.

Fredrik Lundh wrote:

Mike Rovner wrote:

if os.stat says the_file is too big:
fh = open(the_file, 'rb')
fh.seek(2008, 2)

should be

fh.seek(-2008, 2)

right?

data = fh.read()
fh.close()
assert len(data)==2008 # you may want some error processing here
fh = open(the_file, 'wb')
fh.write(data)
fh.close()

or

if os.path.getsize(the_file) > TOO_BIG:
fh = open(the_file, 'rb+')
fh.seek(-2008, 2)
data = fh.read()
fh.seek(0) # rewind
fh.write(data)
fh.truncate()
fh.close()

</F>

Thanks for the info guys!