a small URL encoding script

urlencode

#!/usr/bin/python
"""Simple URL encoder"""


import argparse
import urllib


parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='URL-encode a string')

parser.add_argument('file', type=argparse.FileType('rb'), nargs='?',
        default="-",
        help='file to encode (default: stdin). Use "-" for explicit stdin.')

parser.add_argument('--output', '-o', type=argparse.FileType('wb'),
        default="-",
        help='target file (default: stdout). Use "-" for explicit stdout.')

parser.add_argument('--safe', '-s', default='/=',
        help='safe characters (will not be encoded. Default: %(default)s)')

parser.add_argument('--trim', '-t', action="store_true", default=False,
        help='whether to trim the input before encoding')

args = parser.parse_args()


def trim(s):
    """trim s, if user requests it"""
    if args.trim:
        return s.strip()
    return s


try:
    args.output.write(
        urllib.quote(
            trim(
                args.file.read()
            ),
            safe=args.safe
        )
    )
except KeyboardInterrupt:
    exit(1)
else:
    if args.output.isatty():
        # end stdout with a newline. Any \n from input is escaped
        args.output.write("\n")
finally:
    args.file.close()
    args.output.close()