rfclottery.py

#
# Downloads a random RFC and saves to text file. 
#

import random
import urllib.request
MAX_RFC = 8449

while True:
    choice = random.randint(1, MAX_RFC)

    url = "http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc{}.txt".format(choice)

    with urllib.request.urlopen(url) as response:
        contents = response.read()
        if  "was never issued" not in str(contents):
            print("Downloaded "+url);
            f = open("rfc{}.txt".format(choice), "wb")
            f.write(contents)
            exit()