Among many other things: First, you might want to look at os.path.walk() Second, look at the string data type.
Third, get the Python essential reference. Also, Programming Python (O'Riely) actually has a lot in it about stuff like this. Its a tedious read, but in the end will help a lot for administrative stuff like you are doing here. So, with the understanding that you will look at these references, I will foolishly save you a little time... If you are using md5sum, tou can grab the md5 and the filename like such: myfile = open(filename) md5sums = [] for aline in myfile.readlines(): md5sums.append(aline[:-1].split(" ",1)) myfile.close() The md5 sum will be in the 0 element of each tuple in the md5sums list, and the path to the file will be in the 1 element. James On Saturday 05 March 2005 07:54 pm, Ben Rf wrote: > Hi > > I'm new to programming and i'd like to write a program that will parse > a list produced by md5summer and give me a report in a text file on > which md5 sums appear more than once and where they are located. > > the end end goal is to have a way of finding duplicate files that are > scattered across a lan of 4 windows computers. > > I've dabbled with different languages over the years and i think > python is a good language for this but i have had a lot of trouble > sifting through manual and tutorials finding out with commands i need > and their syntax. > > Can someone please help me? > > Thanks. > > Ben -- James Stroud, Ph.D. UCLA-DOE Institute for Genomics and Proteomics Box 951570 Los Angeles, CA 90095 -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list