check_sites shell script to monitor a list of websites and send notices when they are down.

check_site.py

#!/usr/bin/env python

sites = [
    'google.com',
]

USE_BOXCAR = True
USE_GROWL = True
BOXCAR_EMAIL = ''
BOXCAR_API_KEY = ''
BOXCAR_API_SECRET = ''

import sys, os, urllib, urllib2, hashlib, datetime

now = datetime.datetime.now()
errors = []

def send_notice(site, code):
    if USE_BOXCAR:
        api_url = 'http://boxcar.io/devices/providers/%s/notifications' % BOXCAR_API_KEY
        data = {
            'email': hashlib.md5(BOXCAR_EMAIL).hexdigest(),
            'secret': BOXCAR_API_SECRET,
            'notification[from_screen_name]': site,
            'notification[message]': code,
            'notification[from_remote_service_id]': u'%s-%s' % (now.strftime('%c'), site)
        }
        urllib2.urlopen(api_url, urllib.urlencode(data))
    if USE_GROWL:
        os.system('growlnotify -n "Website Monitor" -p 2 "%s" -m "%s" -s' % (site, code))

for site in sites:
    try:
        urllib2.urlopen('http://%s' % site, None, 30)
    except urllib2.HTTPError, code:
        send_notice(site, code)
        errors.append(site)
    except urllib2.URLError, error:
        error = str(error)
        if error.find('Errno 8') > -1:
            send_notice(site, u'Does not appear to exist.')
        else:
            send_notice(site, u'%s' % error)
        errors.append(site)
    except:
        errors.append(site)
        
if len(errors):
    print u'%s encountered errors.' % ','.join(errors)
else:
    print u'All sites checked out.'
        
sys.exit()