simple python3 wrapper to netcat (nc)

nc.py

'''
nc.py - simple python3 wrapper to netcat (nc)
=============================================

Introducton
-----------

Netcat (http://nc110.sourceforge.net/) is a simple Unix utility which reads and
writes data across network connections. If you are running Linux, you probably
have a version of netcat installed already.

This file contains a simple wrapper to the netcat binary, /bin/nc, from python3

Usage
-----

`nc(host, port, input_byte_stream)`

    * `host`: `str` indicating a hostname
    * `port`: `int` port number
    * `input_byte_stream`: any streamable bytes buffer,
       such as `io.BytesIO(b'my string')`, or `sys.stdin.buffer`
    
Returns the output from nc as a streamable binary buffer.
    
Example
-------

    import sys, io
    
    raw_request = b"GET / HTTP/1.1\nHost: example.localhost\nConnection: close\n\n"
    
    print(nc('example.localhost', 80, io.BytesIO(raw_request)).read())
    print(nc('example.localhost', 80, sys.stdin.buffer).read())


Copying
-------

You are free to use this function as you please. Attribution is not required.

As a simple wrapper between two interfaces that have already been defined,
this function should not be considered a "creative work", and therefore is not
copyrightable. The "obviousness" of the function should additionally render it
nonpatentable. Further, I hereby choose to waive all moral rights to this work.

- Ben <ben@tawesoft.co.uk>

'''



def nc(host, port, input_byte_stream):
    import subprocess
    
    args=['/bin/nc', host, str(port)]
    p = subprocess.Popen(args, stdin=subprocess.PIPE, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
    p.stdin.write(input_byte_stream.read())
    p.stdin.close()
    return p.stdout