A python program which scans a folder called Monday, in that folder will be text files and each of them will have an email address on the first line. The program will simply send an email using smtp. This snippet of code is used to answer this question on Quora. https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-write-a-python-program-that-scans-a-folder-looks-at-e…

run.py

# to run the program
# python run.py
# folders structure
# |->run.py
# |->Monday/
# |->Monday/a.txt
# |->Monday/b.txt
# |->Monday/c.txt
# 
# Example of a.txt file:
# cat a.txt
# someone.email@gmail.com
# 
# Example of the cron job:
# Runs the `run.py` on every Monday at 8:00AM
# 0 8 * * 1 python /path/to/run.py >> /path/to/run.log
# 
# https://crontab.guru/#0_8_*_*_1

import glob, os, smtplib

diretory = "./Monday"

# head over to the diretory where it holds
# all the txt files.
os.chdir(diretory)

# get all the txt file name and
# store them into a list
files = [file for file in glob.glob("*.txt")]

if len(files) == 0:
  print """
      [WARNING] No txt files exist in %s
    """.strip() % (diretory)
  quit()

# open each files and read the first line only
# and store them into a list
emails = []
for file in files:
  try:
    with open(file, 'r') as f:
      # assuming the first line exist
      # and it is an email address
      emails.append(f.readline())
  except IOError:
    print """
      [WARNING] Cannot open file: %s
    """.strip() % (file)
f.close()

for email in emails:
  # you must provide your gamil credential
  # so that you can send email on your behalf
  sender_gmail = 'GMAIL_USERNAME'
  sender_gmail_password = 'GMAIL_PASSWORD'
  headers = "\r\n".join(["from: " + sender_gmail,
            "subject: Weekly update...",
            "to: " + email,
            "mime-version: 1.0",
            "content-type: text/html"])
  body_of_email = """
    Hi there,<br><br>
    Put anything you want to say in the email.
    I have left an exercise for you,
    here is an article teaches how you can send attachment along with the email
    https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3362600/how-to-send-email-attachments-with-python
    This message was intended to sent to %s.
  """ % (email)
  email_body = headers + "\r\n\r\n" + body_of_email

  try:
    server_ssl = smtplib.SMTP_SSL('smtp.gmail.com', 465)
    # in case you need to turn on the debug mode
    # server_ssl.set_debuglevel(1)
    server_ssl.login(sender_gmail, sender_gmail_password)
    server_ssl.sendmail(sender_gmail, email, email_body)
    server_ssl.quit()
    print '[INFO] Succesully send the email to ' + email
  except:
    print '[WARNING] Failed to send the email to ' + email