Generic Operating System Services

The modules described in this chapter provide interfaces to operating system features that are available on (almost) all operating systems, such as files and a clock. The interfaces are generally modeled after the Unix or C interfaces, but they are available on most other systems as well. Here’s an overview:

• os — Miscellaneous operating system interfaces
• io — Core tools for working with streams
• time — Time access and conversions
• argparse — Parser for command-line options, arguments and sub-commands
• logging — Logging facility for Python
• logging.config — Logging configuration
• logging.handlers — Logging handlers
• getpass — Portable password input
• curses — Terminal handling for character-cell displays
• curses.textpad — Text input widget for curses programs
• curses.ascii — Utilities for ASCII characters
• curses.panel — A panel stack extension for curses
• platform — Access to underlying platform’s identifying data
• errno — Standard errno system symbols
• ctypes — A foreign function library for Python