Question

I want to write a script which checks and opens a settings-file called “.mysettings” if it exists in the HOME-directory. If the file is not present in the HOME-directory it should try to open one in the current directory if it exists there.

Is there a idiom or a one-liner in python to program something like that?

The best way I can think of right now is to try to open the first file with a try-catch block like explained in this question and then trying the second file.

Answer 1

This is the python way to do it. No one liner, but clear, and easy to read.

try:
    with open("/tmp/foo.txt") as foo:
        print foo.read()
except:
    try:
        with open("./foo.txt") as foo:
            print foo.read()
    except:
        print "No foo'ing files!"

Of course, you could always do something like this as well:

for f in ["/tmp/foo.txt", "./foo.txt"]:
    try:
        foo = open(f)
    except:
        pass
    else:
        print foo.read()

• Beautiful is better than ugly.
• Readability counts.