spawns multiple screen session for simultaneous command execution

session_spawner.py

#!/usr/bin/env python

import sys
import os
import traceback
from optparse import Option, OptionParser, OptionGroup

version_string = "\n\
%prog\n"

try:

# command line argument parsing
  parser = OptionParser( usage = "usage: %prog {general options}", version = version_string )

  general_option_group = OptionGroup( parser, "General Options" )

  general_option_group.add_option( "-q", "--quiet", action = "store_false", 
                     dest = "verbose", default = True, help = "disable verbose output" )
  general_option_group.add_option( "-f", "--file", action = "store",
                     dest = "filename", help = "input file name prefix" )
  general_option_group.add_option( "-i", "--iterations", action = "store", type = "int",
                     dest = "iterations", help = "number of iterations" )
  general_option_group.add_option( "-s", "--session-name", action = "store",
                     dest = "session", help = "screen session name" )
  general_option_group.add_option( "-c", "--command", action = "store",
                     dest = "command", help = "command" )

  parser.add_option_group( general_option_group )

  ( options, args ) = parser.parse_args( sys.argv )

  if not options.filename:
    parser.error( "must specify input file name prefix" )
  if not options.iterations:
    parser.error( "must specify iterations" )
  if not options.session:
    parser.error( "must specify session name" )
  if not options.command:
    parser.error( "must specify command string" )

  if options.verbose:
    print sys.argv

  for i in range( options.iterations ):
    c = "screen -S %s%02d -md %s %s%02d" % ( options.session, i, options.command, options.filename, i )
    if options.verbose:
      print c
    os.system( c )

except KeyboardInterrupt, e:
  print '\ncaught exception: %s: %s' % ( e.__class__, e )
  if options.verbose:
    traceback.print_exc( file = sys.stderr )
  
  sys.exit( 1 )

sys.exit( 0 )