So a while ago I decided that twitter is the new finger albeit more palitable for the masses and wrote twitterd in perl. I’ve been using this to update my twitter and facebook status ever since. A couple of months ago I decided to rewrite it in Python. Next stop C?

#!/usr/bin/python
"""
twitterd
Author: Nathan Charles <ncharles at gmail dot com>
Version: 0.1
This program twits the contents of a file when it's time stamp is updated.  
The functionality is similar to that of finger/.plan in days of yore.
Requires:
   pytwitter
   configobj
This program has no warranty to the full extent of the law
"""

import pytwitter
from sys import exit, argv
from os import path
from time import sleep

POLLINT = 60
READLEN = 140

def setEnv():
    from configobj import ConfigObj
    from os import environ
    import getopt
    env = {}
    HOME = environ.get("HOME")
    config = ConfigObj(HOME + '/.twitrc')
    env["watchfile"] = HOME + '/.plan'
    try:
        env["username"] = config['username']
        env["password"] = config['password']
    except:
        #.twitrc doesn't exist not nessarily a problem
        pass

    try:
        env["optlist"], args = getopt.getopt(argv[1:], 'dfh',["username=","password="])
    except getopt.GetoptError:
        usage()
        print "called exception"
        exit(1)
    for o,a in env["optlist"]:
        if o == "--username":
            env["username"]=a
        if o == "--password":
            env["password"]=a

    if not "username" in env:
        print "username is not set"
        exit(1)
    if not "password" in env:
        print "password is not set"
        exit(1)
    return env

def watch(username, password, watchfile):
    """Updates a twitter feed with the contents of a file when the timestamp is updated.
    """
    try:
        timeStampInitial = path.getmtime(watchfile)
    except:
        #file doesn't exist setting to 0 because it might exist in the future
        timeStampInitial = 0
    while 1:
        try:
            timeStampIncrimented = path.getmtime(watchfile)
        except:
            #file still doesn't exist
            timeStampIncrimented = 0
        if (timeStampInitial==timeStampIncrimented):
            sleep(POLLINT)
        else:
            timeStampInitial = timeStampIncrimented
            #update status
            statusTxt = file(watchfile).read(READLEN)
            client = pytwitter.pytwitter(username=username, password=password)
            rc = client.statuses_update(status=statusTxt)
            print rc

def usage():
    """Prints when called with no arguments or with invalid arguments
    """
    print """usage: twitterd [options]
   -d    daemonize
   -f    run in forground
   -h    help

   twitterd must have twitter username/password set. this can be set via .twitrc

   --password    set username
   --username   set password  
    """

if __name__ == "__main__":
    g = setEnv()

    if g["optlist"]:
        for o,a in g["optlist"]:
            if o == '-h':
                usage()
                exit(1)
            if o == '-d':
                #run in background
                import daemon
                daemon.daemonize()
            if o == '-f':
                #run in forground
                print "Running in Foreground"
    else:
        usage()
        exit(1)

    watch(g["username"], g["password"], g["watchfile"])