What is the alternative for open in python 2.4.3

Question

When I use open() in python 2.4.3, i get the following error

File "/tmp/chgjdbcconfig.py", line 16 with open("text.new", "wt") as fout: ^ SyntaxError: invalid syntax

I checked the python version and this is my output

Python 2.4.3

I was looking for advice on what could be the alternative. I am trying to edit lines in an XML file on a linux server and I have no control over the upgrades of the python version.

Any advice would be great!

Answer 1

open isn't missing in 2.4. What's missing is the with statement (added in Python 2.5 as PEP-0343)

To do the same code without with :

fout = open("text.new", "wt")
# code working with fout file
fout.close()

Note the fout.close() is implicit when using with , but you need to add it yourself without

---

with statements have the added benefit of closing the file even if an exception is raised, so a more precise analogue would actually be:

fout = open("text.new", "wt")
try:
    # code working with fout file
finally:
    fout.close()

Answer 2

it's not open() it is choking on. It is the with syntax. Context managers did not exist in Python 2.4.

you must explicitly close the file also.