Compress individual files with gzip

compress_files.py

#!/usr/bin/env python

import argparse
import subprocess
import shlex
import sys

def compress_file(filename, level):
    try:
        cmd = shlex.split("gzip %s -c %s" % (level, filename))
        subprocess.call(cmd, stdout=file(filename+'.gz', 'wb'))
    except:
        print "Error:", sys.exc_info()[0]

def main():
    options = { 'level' : '-1' }

    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Compress some files individually')

    parser.add_argument('files', metavar='FILE', nargs='+',
            help='A file to compress')
    parser.add_argument('--level', nargs='?', default=-1, choices=['-1','-9'],
            help='Compression level: -1 fastest, -9 smallest')

    args = parser.parse_args()

    for f in args.files:
        compress_file(f, args.level)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()