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8 UNIX Specific Services

The modules described in this chapter provide interfaces to features that are unique to the Unix operating system, or in some cases to some or many variants of it. Here's an overview:

posix

-- The most common Posix system calls (normally used via module os).

posixpath

-- Common Posix pathname manipulations (normally used via os.path).

pwd

-- The password database (getpwnam() and friends).

grp

-- The group database (getgrnam() and friends).

crypt

-- The (crypt() function used to check Unix passwords).

dbm

-- The standard ``database'' interface, based on ndbm.

gdbm

-- GNU's reinterpretation of dbm.

termios

-- Posix style tty control.

fcntl

-- The fcntl() and ioctl() system calls.

posixfile

-- A file-like object with support for locking.

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• 8.1 Built-in Module posix
• 8.2 Standard Module posixpath
• 8.3 Built-in Module pwd
• 8.4 Built-in Module grp
• 8.5 Built-in module crypt
• 8.6 Built-in Module dbm
• 8.7 Built-in Module gdbm
• 8.8 Built-in Module termios
  • 8.8.1 Example
• 8.9 Standard Module TERMIOS
• 8.10 Built-in Module fcntl
• 8.11 Standard Module posixfile
• 8.12 Built-in Module syslog

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guido@cnri.reston.va.us