1.md

Let's say you want to send files to a program

python pipe_test.py --blah foo.txt bar.txt

AND send files content to a program with a pipe

cat foo.txt bar.txt | python pipe_test.py --blah

with the same script pipe_text.py

Here a piece of code

pipe_text.py

import fileinput
import argparse

# testing also arguments to see if it interferes. suspens… It doesn't :p
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument("infiles", nargs="*")
parser.add_argument('--blah', help='do something',
                    action='store_true', dest="blah", default=True)
args = parser.parse_args()
filelist = args.infiles

# List of files
print "Files list: %s" % filelist
# Processing of the input
line_number = 0
for line in fileinput.input(args.infiles):
    line_number += 1
    print  "%s - %s" % (line_number, line.strip())

results.md

so without the pipe

Files list: ['foo.txt', 'bar.txt']
1 - foo 1
2 - foo 2
3 - foo 3
4 - foo 4
5 - bar 1
6 - bar 2
7 - bar 3
8 - bar 4

with the pipe

Files list: []
1 - foo 1
2 - foo 2
3 - foo 3
4 - foo 4
5 - bar 1
6 - bar 2
7 - bar 3
8 - bar 4