sleep with random delay, so you don't overload the server at midnight

fuzzysleep.py

#!/usr/bin/env python

# fuzzysleep - sleep with random delay, so you don't overload the server at midnight

import time, random, argparse

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument("delay", help="Desired maximum delay", type=int)
parser.add_argument("--verbose", help="Prints extra info", action="store_true")
group = parser.add_mutually_exclusive_group()
group.add_argument("--minutes", action="store_true", help="Use minutes instead of seconds")
group.add_argument("--hours", action="store_true", help="Use hours instead of seconds")
args=parser.parse_args()

if args.minutes:
  delay = random.randint(0, (args.delay*60))
elif args.hours:
  delay = random.randint(0, (args.delay*3600))
else:
  delay = random.randint(0, args.delay)

if args.verbose:
  print("Sleeping for {} seconds...".format(delay))

time.sleep(delay)

if args.verbose:
  print("Sleeping finished!")