Producing variants of a password based on command-line flags

Question

I created a python script that attempts to find weak passwords based on a keyword. I really enjoy programming with Python but I don't have a ton of experience so I'm hoping to get feedback on whether I should change how I have implemented anything below so that I am in line with best practices.

The code below is basically just processing all of the arguments and making calls to specific functions based on what flags/arguments are passed in.

Are there any obvious changes that I should make to the code below? Is this the correct way to handle arguments of this nature?

#get the password and options from the command line
opts, args = getopt.getopt(sys.argv[1:], ':o:t:d:g:necf')
# print opts
# print args
password = args[0].lower()

outputFile = ''
target = '' 
data = ''
text = ''
numbersFlag = False
copyFlag = False
fullFlag = False
requestFlag = False

for opt, arg in opts:
    if opt == "-o": #output file
        outputFile = arg
    if opt == "-f": #generate full password list
        fullFlag = True 
    elif opt == "-t": #target of the POST request
        requestFlag = True
        target = arg
    elif opt == "-d": #data for the POST requet
        requestFlag = True
        data = arg
    elif opt == "-c": #copy output to the clipboard
        copyFlag = True
    elif opt == "-g": #text to be searched for in POST response
        requestFlag = True
        text = arg
    # elif opt == "-e": #append extra character
    #   letters.append(dummyCharacters)
    elif opt == "-n": #append numbers to end
        numbersFlag = True

#load full or basic password list based on arguments passed in
passwords = fullSub(password) if fullFlag else basicSub(password)
if fullFlag:
    passwords = fullSub(password)
elif numbersFlag:
    passwords = appendNumbers(password)
else:
    passwords = basicSub(password)

#save passwords to file
if outputFile != '':
    f = open(outputFile, 'w')
    for password in passwords:
        f.write("".join(password) + '\n')
    f.close()
#copy passwords to clipboard
elif copyFlag:
    pwList = ''
    i=0
    for password in passwords:
        i+=1
        pwList += "".join(password) + '\n'
    print `i` + " passwords copied to the clipboard."
    pyperclip.copy(pwList)
#make request using passwords
elif requestFlag:
    #make sure all required values were passed in
    if data == '':
        print "You must provide data in order to make a HTTP request.  Example: -d [email protected]&password={0}"
        sys.exit()
    elif text == '':
        print "You must specify what text to search for in the response in order to make a HTTP request. Example: -g success:true"
        sys.exit()
    elif target == "":
        print "You must specify a target URL in order to make a HTTP request"
        sys.exit()
    makeRequests(target, data, passwords,text)
else:
    i = 0
    for password in passwords:
        i+=1
        print "".join(password)
    print `i` + " passwords generated."

Answer 1

Some remarks about your code:

1. Use if __name__ == '__main__':
2. In my opinion argparse is better then the getopt way,
3. Divide your code into functions for seperation of control
4. Use string formatting
5. Uphold PEP8 guidelines for a cleaner code

---

1.

def main():
    parse_options()
    do_stuff()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

---

2. Example of parsing options via argparse

def parse_options():
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(usage='%(prog)s [options] <password>',
                                     description='Password-Tool',
                                     formatter_class=argparse.RawDescriptionHelpFormatter,
                                     epilog=
'''
Examples
'''

                                        )
    parser.add_argument('-o', action="store_true", help='output file')
    ...
    args = parser.parse_args()

---

3. When dividing code into seperate functions it makes for a more readable code, and that way it can be imported by other programs.

---

4. When using print formatting looks better and correct way would be:

print '{} some text here'.format(i)

---

Answer 2

No.

While this works and is not bad, there is a much better way. Python provides the module argparse to facilitate the parsing and handling of arguments. I would recommend learning and using that.