使用python更改Linux主机名

Question

I am trying to change the linux hostname by having a python program randomly select a name from a file then setting that as the host name. The code works only when the random digit value is 1. What am I doing wrong? The code I am using is below.

import random
import os
import socket

contents=[]

with open("/root/Desktop/names.txt") as rnd:
    for line in rnd:
        line=line.strip()
        contents.append(line)
name = contents[random.randint(0,len(contents)-1)]
rnd.close()
name = "hostname -b "+name
os.system(name)
hostname = socket.gethostname()
print "Hostname:", hostname

Answer 1

The random module provides a function to select a random element from a sequence:

name = random.choice(contents)

That does exact what you want, I think. Furthermore, it has the advantage that if contents is empty for whatever reason, an exception will be thrown.

---

Update:

In passing, you don't need to call rnd.close() since you are using a context manager when you open the file in the first place ( with open(...) as rnd: ) - it will be called automatically when you leave the scope of the with clause.