tempfile syntax in python 2.4.3

Question

I have the following code which runs perfectly on Python 2.6.6:

import tempfile
with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile() as scriptfile:
        scriptfile.write(<variablename>)
        scriptfile.flush()
        subprocess.call(['/bin/bash', scriptfile.name])

However, when I try to run it on Python 2.4.3, I get the following error:

File "<stdin>", line 2
    with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile() as scriptfile
                ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

Is there a change in syntax in Python 2.4.3?

Answer 1

Python 2.4 does not support the with statement. So you just need to open and close the scriptfile manually.

scriptfile = tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile()

# whatever you need to do with `scriptfile`

scriptfile.close()

Answer 2

The with-statement is available only since Python 2.5 using from __future__ import with_statement and it is enabled by default since Python 2.6.

To emulate its behaviour, you could use try/finally:

#!/usr/bin/env python2.4
import subprocess
import tempfile

scriptfile = tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile()
try:
    scriptfile.write(<variablename>)
    scriptfile.flush()
    subprocess.call(['/bin/bash', scriptfile.name])
finally:
    scriptfile.close()

btw, you could avoid creating a file on disk by passing the script via a pipe:

from subprocess import Popen, PIPE

p = Popen('/bin/bash', stdin=PIPE)
p.communicate(<variablename>)

There are some differences but it might work as is in your case.