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Last active June 20, 2019 14:40
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Built-in Tools in Python

List of command line accessible tools built into the python standard library.

Encoding

Base64 en/decoding:

python -m base64 -d [file]
python -m base64 -e [file]

ROT-13 en/decoder:

python -m encodings.rot_13

UUencode/decode:

python -m uu [infile [outfile]] # encode
python -m uu -d [infile [outfile]] # decode

MIME quoted-printable en/decoding:

python -m mimify -e [infile [outfile]] # encode
python -m mimify -d [infile [outfile]] # decode

Quoted-printable en/decoding:

python -m quopri [file] # encode
python -m quopri -d [file] # decode

Compression

GZip:

python -m gzip [file] # compress
python -m gzip -d [file] # decompress

Zipfile extraction, etc.:

python -m zipfile -l <file> # list
python -m zipfile -t <file> # test
python -m zipfile -e <file> <dir> # extract
python -m zipfile -c <file> sources... # create

Internet

HTTP servers:

python -m BaseHTTPServer
python -m CGIHTTPServer
python -m SimpleHTTPServer

Simple FTP client:

python -m ftplib host [-l<dir-to-list>] [-d<dir-to-cwd>] [-p] [file-to-retrieve]

HTML Text extraction:

python -m htmllib <file>

JSON Validator and pretty-printer:

python -m json.tool [infile [outfile]]

List POP3 mailbox:

python -m poplib <server> <username> <password>

SMTP server:

python -m smtpd

Send a mail message (to localhost):

python -m smtplib

Telnet client:

python -m telnetlib [host [port]]

MIME type/extension database:

python -m mimetypes file.ext # print type for filename
python -m mimetypes -e mime/type # print extension for type

Open webbrowser:

python -m webbrowser -n <url> # new window
python -m webbrowser -t <url> # new tab

Antigravity:

python -m antigravity

Python

Pure-Python REPL:

python -m code

Python bytecode batch compiler:

python -m compileall

Python code profiler:

python -m cProfile <script>
python -m profile <script>
python -m pstats <filename> # print profiling statistics

Python doctest executor:

python -m doctest <script>

Python benchmark:

python -m test.pystone [iterations]
python -m hotshot.stones

Python interactive debugger:

python -m pdb

Extract Python classes and methods from a module:

python -m pyclbr <script>

Python documentation browser:

python -m pydoc <topic>
python -m pydoc -g # graphical browser
python -m pydoc -p <port> # start HTTP docs server on port

Python snippet timer:

python -m timeit

Misc

Calendar (like cal, but can do HTML and various fancy formatting stuff):

python -m calendar

Directory comparer:

python -m filecmp [-r] dir1 dir2 # -r for recursive directory compare

Paragraph formatting:

python -m formatter [file]

Show current platform (like uname but simpler):

python -m platform

Zen of Pyhon:

python -m this
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