Python: print strings in the same line, overwriting the previous content

print-line-elide.py

#!/usr/bin/env python
# Tested on Python2.7 and Python3.5

import os, sys
import time

lines = [
    "abc",
    "abcdefghi",
    "a",
    "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa",
];

# width of terminal
cols = int(os.popen('stty size', 'r').read().split()[1])

def to_width(s, width):
    extra_space = width - len(s)
    if extra_space >= 0:
        return s + ' ' * extra_space
    else:
        return s[:width - 3] + "..."

for i in range(100):
    sys.stdout.write("\r%s" % to_width(lines[i % len(lines)], cols - 20))
    sys.stdout.flush()
    time.sleep(0.1)
sys.stdout.write("\n")
sys.stdout.flush()