Overview

Python is a powerful and popular object-oriented scripting language. This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the core syntax and functions provided by Python, with a particular focus on how it can be used to script administrative tasks, enabling those who manage Linux systems to do so more efficiently. The course concludes with an overview of Fabric; a high-level Python library that facilitates systems administration through remote execution of shell commands on multiple hosts over SSH, returning useful Python objects.

Audience

This course is perfect for System Engineers and System Administrators new to Python, who would like an introduction to the language and how it can be used to script administrative tasks.

Prerequisites

• You should have experience managing Linux systems.
• Familiarity with another object-oriented language would be an advantage.
• The course assumes no prior knowledge of Python.

Objectives

You will learn:

• Writing clean Python code
• Working with functions and objects
• Working with text and regular expressions
• Handing exceptions
• Manipulating files
• Working with Fabric

Topics

• Getting Started with Python
• Overview of Python
• Installing Python
• Getting ready to develop

• Python Language Fundamentals
• Overview of core Python syntax rules
• Simple data types and variables
• Object essentials
• Flow control

• Working with Functions
• The benefit of functions
• Writing and calling functions
• Passing parameters

• Exception Handling
• Overview of exceptions in Python
• Handling exceptions
• Raising exceptions
• Design issues

• Collections
• Overview of collections in Python
• Lists
• Tuples
• Sets
• Dictionaries

• Strings and Regular Expressions
• Overview of strings in Python
• Basic string manipulation
• Introduction to regular expressions
• Using regular expressions in Python

• File Handling
• Overview of file handling in Python
• Reading and writing text files
• Working with binary files
• Streaming and serializing Python objects

• Fabric Overview
• Remote execution
• Connections
• Running commands
• Transferring files
• Super-user privileges