Python readlines() 3.X to 2.X

Question

I have a script originally written for python 3.5+. I am needing to convert it to 2.6.2. In the script I utilize readlines() which I believe behaves differently between the two versions. Specifically I am using the readlines() to retrieve data from a txt file that is separated by line breaks.

Here is a snippit:

t=open(supportID+"stmp.txt","r")
timeIn=(t.readlines())
a=(str(timeIn))
supportID=(t.readlines())
b=(str(supportID))
branch=(t.readlines())
c=(str(branch))
clientID=(t.readlines())
d=(str(clientID))
problem=(t.readlines())
e=(str(problem))
solution=(t.readlines())
f=(str(solution))
timeOut=(t.readlines())
g=(str(timeOut))

In my script for 3.x I had a '1' in each of the readlines() and it performed as needed, however with 2.x this does not work. I have tried entering values 1-7 and blank as seen above.

With some research I discovered that some 2.x users use with open(filename) Is this the preferred method or is there a way to alter my original to make it work?

EDIT: So im going to use this format

with open(supportID+"stmp.txt") as t:
    for line in t:
        print(line)

I plugged this in and it works, printing each line as a line in my shell. Now I will want to use this to assign each line to a variable.

EDIT 2: This is currently working for my environment but is not best practice for this function. Reads in each line and assigns each line to a variable.

t=open(supportID+"stmp.txt","r")
lines = t.readlines()
t.close()
a=lines[0]
b=lines[1]
c=lines[2]
...

Answer 1

To read in each line from the file and assign to a variable I used this method for python 2.6.2

t=open(supportID+"stmp.txt","r")
lines = t.readlines()
t.close()
a=lines[0]
b=lines[1]
c=lines[2]
...

Answer 2

try this code: (I assume it will work with python version >= 2.6)

with open('lines.txt','r') as f:
    lines = f.readlines()
    for line in lines:
       print(line.strip())