Programming a Python Do Nothing Machine

by Mike Levin

This is one of those cases where I really have to use this journal to help discipline myself to dig into my work. The current item is quite a challenge. It is a long-running SERP job that will require cycling IPs, but I lost my IP-cycling code and it won’t run Linux-side because it automates Windows desktop to click buttons on my desktop VPN software. Okay, so the solution is to break it in two. I don’t want to backslide on my Linux Jupyter progress but I don’t want to give up the power of automating things on a Windows desktop through pywinauto. Okay, that’s where to start.

Unlike most times, this starts coding in a command-line (as opposed to Jupyter). And we start with the simplest of loops:

from time import sleep


print("Starting")

while True:
    print(".", end="", flush=True)
    sleep(1)

YES! Documenting the process makes it love-worthy and now I can focus. Okay, the flush is necessary because a period is too small to register. But I will want a count of how many… what? Seconds? Yes! So here’s that version:

from time import sleep, time


print("Starting")

start = time()
while True:
    print(f"{int(time() - start)} ", end="", flush=True)
    sleep(1)

And so it should only ever continue while a particular file is in location. When it is removed, the loop should stop. Okay, this is my first thought.

from time import sleep, time
from pathlib import Path


print("Starting")

start = time()
while True:
    if Path("goodip.txt").is_file():
        print(f"{int(time() - start)} ", end="", flush=True)
        sleep(1)
    else:
        print("Need new IP")
        break

I’m not so sure the loop should stop. Rather, the new IP should be issued and a new start time assigned. The number should always represent the number of seconds since getting issued the new IP. I used the “touch” program to create goodip.txt so I can recreate it easily and should test what removing it does. Oh, removing it should put it back and reset the counter! Haha! It’s a do-nothing machine. Okay, here’s my Do Nothing machine. Every time you delete goodip.txt it restarts the timer at zero and creates a new goodip.txt file. Woot! Okay, the rest is just pywinauto stuff.

from time import sleep, time
from pathlib import Path


print("Starting")

start = time()
while True:
    if Path("goodip.txt").exists():
        print(f"{int(time() - start)} ", end="", flush=True)
        sleep(1)
    else:
        print("Need new IP")
        start = time()
        with open("goodip.txt", "w+") as fh:
            fh.write("foo")