When you need to open a file for both reading and writing, creating it if it doesn’t exist, C++ offers several approaches. The choice depends on your project’s requirements and how much control you need over the process. Using std::fstream The most straightforward modern approach uses std::fstream, part of the standard library: #include <fstream> std::fstream…
C++20 introduced std::string::starts_with(), which is the most straightforward way to check if a string begins with a specific substring: #include <iostream> #include <string> int main() { std::string text = “big string here…”; std::cout << std::boolalpha; std::cout << text.starts_with(“big”) << std::endl; // true std::cout << text.starts_with(“small”) << std::endl; // false std::cout << text.starts_with(“big string”) << std::endl;…
Splitting strings by a delimiter is a common task in systems programming. C++ doesn’t provide a built-in split function like Python, but you can implement one efficiently using the standard library. Using std::istringstream and getline() The standard approach uses std::istringstream with std::getline(). The getline() function accepts a delimiter parameter, allowing you to extract tokens until…
The Linux command readlink -m resolves a path to its absolute, canonical form, following all symlinks and resolving .. and . components. Python provides several ways to do this, depending on your needs and Python version. Using pathlib.Path.resolve() The modern standard approach uses pathlib: from pathlib import Path canonical_path = Path(“./../folder/./file.txt”).resolve() print(canonical_path) Path.resolve() returns an…
Vim’s default indentation can mangle C++11 lambdas, treating them like nested blocks instead of closures. The lambda body gets indented too far relative to the enclosing statement. The Problem Given this code: #include <iostream> #include <string> #include <vector> #include <algorithm> int main() { std::vector<std::string> strs({“one”, “two”}); std::vector<std::string> newstrs; std::transform(strs.begin(), strs.end(), std::back_inserter(newstrs), [](const std::string& s) ->…
For iterating through directories and files in C++, you have several options depending on your needs and C++ standard version. Using <filesystem> (C++17 and Later — Recommended) The modern approach uses std::filesystem, which is cleaner, safer, and handles cross-platform differences for you: #include <filesystem> #include <iostream> #include <string> namespace fs = std::filesystem; int ListDir(const std::string&…
Stripping newlines from strings is common when processing text input, especially from files or network streams. Here are the practical approaches. Using erase() with std::remove() The most efficient method combines std::remove() and erase() — this is the erase-remove idiom: #include <iostream> #include <algorithm> #include <string> int main() { std::string input{“line 1\n\n\nline 3\nline 4”}; std::cout <<…
The stat() system call is the standard way to retrieve file metadata on Linux, including modification time (mtime). It’s fast, portable, and gives you access to nanosecond-precision timestamps. Basic Approach with stat() #include <sys/stat.h> #include <stdio.h> struct stat st; if (stat(“path/to/file”, &st) == -1) { perror(“stat failed”); return 1; } printf(“Mtime (seconds): %ld\n”, st.st_mtime); printf(“Mtime…
By default, make executes the first target it encounters in your Makefile. This works fine for simple projects, but as Makefiles grow and you have multiple build configurations, deployment targets, and test suites, you’ll need explicit control over which target runs by default. The .DEFAULT_GOAL Variable The cleanest way to change the default target is…
Determining whether a path points to a directory or regular file is a common task in system programming. You need to stat the path and inspect the file mode. Using lstat() and stat macros The lstat() system call retrieves file metadata into a struct stat. For a given path, you can use the standard macros…
When you call os.makedirs(path, mode=0o777) in Python, the resulting directory often won’t have the permissions you expect. The mode argument gets masked by the process’s umask, which removes certain permission bits before applying them to the filesystem. Your umask acts as a filter. If your umask is 0o022 (common on many systems), it removes write…
GFortran is the GNU Fortran compiler from the GCC toolchain. It’s essential for scientific computing, numerical simulations, and legacy Fortran code maintenance. Quick Install On modern RHEL-based systems (RHEL 9+, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, CentOS Stream): sudo dnf install gcc-gfortran On CentOS 7 (EOL since June 2024), the older yum package manager still works: sudo yum…
The fundamental distinction between standard output and standard error matters for proper program behavior, logging, and stream redirection. Here’s how to handle both correctly. Basic Approach with fprintf() The simplest method uses fprintf() to write to specific streams: #include <stdio.h> int main() { fprintf(stdout, “This goes to standard output\n”); fprintf(stderr, “This goes to standard error\n”);…
By default, print() writes to STDOUT. Both STDOUT and STDERR go to your terminal unless you redirect them. Here’s how to send output to each stream explicitly. Printing to STDOUT The standard print() function writes to STDOUT and automatically adds a newline: print(“your message”) Printing to STDERR To print to STDERR, pass the file parameter:…
To get the parent process ID (PPID) of the running process, use the os.getppid() function: import os ppid = os.getppid() print(f”Parent Process ID: {ppid}”) This returns the process ID of the parent process as an integer. On Unix-like systems, this is straightforward. On Windows, the behavior is consistent as well. Accessing Full Process Information For…
To retrieve the parent process ID (PPID) of the current running process, use the getppid() system call. This is the standard and portable approach on Unix-like systems including Linux. #include <stdio.h> #include <unistd.h> int main() { pid_t ppid = getppid(); printf(“Parent process ID: %d\n”, ppid); return 0; } Compile and run: gcc -o get_ppid get_ppid.c…
Every running process gets a unique identifier from the operating system called a PID (Process ID). You’ll need this when managing processes, logging, creating lock files, or coordinating between parent and child processes. The POSIX standard approach The simplest way is getpid() from unistd.h: #include <unistd.h> #include <stdio.h> int main() { pid_t pid = getpid();…
The gethostname() function is the standard POSIX way to retrieve the system’s hostname. It’s straightforward to use and works across Unix-like systems. Basic Implementation #include <unistd.h> #include <stdio.h> int main() { char hostname[256]; if (gethostname(hostname, sizeof(hostname)) == 0) { printf(“Hostname: %s\n”, hostname); } else { perror(“gethostname”); return 1; } return 0; } The function takes…
There are several ways to retrieve the hostname of the current machine in Python, each with different use cases. Using socket.gethostname() The simplest and most common approach is the socket module, which is part of Python’s standard library: import socket hostname = socket.gethostname() print(hostname) This returns the hostname as a string. On most systems, this…
Epoch timestamps (seconds since January 1, 1970 UTC) are common in logs, databases, and APIs. Python’s datetime module handles conversion cleanly. Basic Conversion The simplest approach uses datetime.fromtimestamp(): from datetime import datetime epoch = 1609459200 dt = datetime.fromtimestamp(epoch) print(dt) # 2021-01-01 00:00:00 For UTC times specifically, use utcfromtimestamp(): from datetime import datetime, timezone epoch =…