file.read() returns an emtpy even if its currenet position is not atthe end

[js]

Hi list.

I'm writing a tail -f like program in python
and I found file.read() doesn't work as I think it should.

Here's the code illustrating my problem.

###
#!/usr/bin/env python
import os, sys
filename = "test.out"

f = open(filename, "w+")
f.write("Hello")
f.flush()

f.seek(0, 2)

statinfo = os.stat(filename)
print "file size: %d" % statinfo.st_size
print "position : %d" % f.tell()
line = f.read()
print "line : [%s]" % line

# Writing the same file using another fd
f2 = open(filename, "a+")
f2.write("World")
f2.flush()
f2.close()

statinfo = os.stat(filename)
print "file size: %d" % statinfo.st_size
print "position : %d" % f.tell()
line = f.read() # read() returns emtpy!! readlines?() works ok
###

Running the above, I got the following.
###
file size: 5
position : 5
line : []
file size: 10
position : 5
###

So my question is
why the second f.read() returns an emtpy?

>From tell() and its st_size I'm sure that file descriptor is not at the EOF

and read()'s doc says
"An empty string is returned when EOF is encountered immediately".
Using readline() or readlines() instead of read() works great though.

I'm using Python 2.4.3 on OS X.

Probably I'm missing something but I could't figure out.

Thanks in advance.

[Alberto Valverde]

On Apr 22, 6:51 pm, "js " <[e-mail]:

Hi list.

I'm writing a tail -f like program in python
and I found file.read() doesn't work as I think it should.

Here's the code illustrating my problem.

###
#!/usr/bin/env python
import os, sys
filename = "test.out"

f = open(filename, "w+")
f.write("Hello")
f.flush()

f.seek(0, 2)

statinfo = os.stat(filename)
print "file size: %d" % statinfo.st_size
print "position : %d" % f.tell()
line = f.read()
print "line : [%s]" % line

# Writing the same file using another fd
f2 = open(filename, "a+")
f2.write("World")
f2.flush()
f2.close()

statinfo = os.stat(filename)
print "file size: %d" % statinfo.st_size
print "position : %d" % f.tell()
line = f.read() # read() returns emtpy!! readlines?() works ok
###

Running the above, I got the following.
###
file size: 5
position : 5
line : []
file size: 10
position : 5
###

So my question is
why the second f.read() returns an emtpy?>From tell() and its st_size I'm sure that file descriptor is not at the EOF

and read()'s doc says
"An empty string is returned when EOF is encountered immediately".
Using readline() or readlines() instead of read() works great though.

I'm using Python 2.4.3 on OS X.

Probably I'm missing something but I could't figure out.

Thanks in advance.

I've hit into the same issue recently when implementing more or less
the same thing and found that doing f.seek(f.tell()) on the file
object when empty strings start to come out allows you to continue
read()ing after hitting EOF if the file grows again.

I finally dropped the "hack" and used readline instead since it made
me a little bit uneasy though...

Alberto

[js]

Thank you for reply.

I've just found the bug report on this.
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index...70&atid=105470

Nobody seems to be working on this, though.

On 22 Apr 2007 14:41:29 -0700, Alberto Valverde <al*****@toscat.netwrote:

On Apr 22, 6:51 pm, "js " <[e-mail]:

Hi list.

I'm writing a tail -f like program in python
and I found file.read() doesn't work as I think it should.

Here's the code illustrating my problem.

###
#!/usr/bin/env python
import os, sys
filename = "test.out"

f = open(filename, "w+")
f.write("Hello")
f.flush()

f.seek(0, 2)

statinfo = os.stat(filename)
print "file size: %d" % statinfo.st_size
print "position : %d" % f.tell()
line = f.read()
print "line : [%s]" % line

# Writing the same file using another fd
f2 = open(filename, "a+")
f2.write("World")
f2.flush()
f2.close()

statinfo = os.stat(filename)
print "file size: %d" % statinfo.st_size
print "position : %d" % f.tell()
line = f.read() # read() returns emtpy!! readlines?() works ok
###

Running the above, I got the following.
###
file size: 5
position : 5
line : []
file size: 10
position : 5
###

So my question is
why the second f.read() returns an emtpy?>From tell() and its st_size I'm sure that file descriptor is not at the EOF

and read()'s doc says
"An empty string is returned when EOF is encountered immediately".
Using readline() or readlines() instead of read() works great though.

I'm using Python 2.4.3 on OS X.

Probably I'm missing something but I could't figure out.

Thanks in advance.

I've hit into the same issue recently when implementing more or less
the same thing and found that doing f.seek(f.tell()) on the file
object when empty strings start to come out allows you to continue
read()ing after hitting EOF if the file grows again.

I finally dropped the "hack" and used readline instead since it made
me a little bit uneasy though...

Alberto

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