system programming this first in-depth part of the book presents python' system programming tools-interfaces to services in the underlying operating system as well as the context of an executing program it consists of the following this provides comprehensive first look at commonly used system interface tools it starts slowly and is meant in part as reference for tools and techniques we'll be using later in the book this continues the tour begun in by showing how python' system interfaces are applied to process standard streamscommand-line argumentsshell variablesand more this continues our survey of system interfaces by focusing on tools and techniques used to process files and directories in python we'll learn about binary filestree walkersand so on this is an introduction to python' library support for running programs in parallel hereyou'll find coverage of threadsprocess forkspipessocketssignalsqueuesand the like this last is collection of typical system programming examples that draw upon the material of the prior four python scripts here perform real tasksamong other thingsthey split and join filescompare and copy directory treestest other programsand search and launch files although this part of the book emphasizes systems programming tasksthe tools introduced are general-purpose and are used often in later