Search recursively a directory tree for files that contain a specified string (poor mans grep replacement)

poor-grep.py

#!/usr/bin/env python

import sys, os

basedir = "."

if len( sys.argv ) > 2:
	basedir = sys.argv[1]

string = sys.argv[-1]

def is_in_file( fn, string ):
	out = False
	with open( fn, 'rb' ) as handle:
		txt = handle.read()
		out = string in txt
	
	return out


def do_the_crusade( root, string ):
	out = []
	files = os.listdir( root )
	for fn in files:
		path = os.path.join( root, fn )
		if os.path.isdir( path ):
			out.extend( do_the_crusade( path, string ) )
		else:
			if is_in_file( path, string ):
				out.append( path )
	return out




files = do_the_crusade( basedir, string )

for fn in files:
	print fn