pycfutils 2026.6.12

PyCFUtils (Cristi Fati's Utils for Python (&& more)) - a collection of goodies ((cool) scripts / utilities)

PyCFUtils

PyCFUtils (Cristi Fati's Utils for Python (&& more)) is a cross-platform collection of utility modules covering IO, networking, system operations, ctypes helpers, GUI wrappers (Windows), and SetupTools extensions for building native libraries. It has no global dependencies outside the Python standard library.

Install

python -m pip install --upgrade pycfutils

Usage

IO

import pycfutils.io

print("Press a key in less than one second...")
print(pycfutils.io.read_key(timeout=1))

CTypes

import pycfutils.ctypes

print(pycfutils.ctypes.endianness())

Miscellaneous utilities

import pycfutils.miscellaneous as misc

print(misc.timestamp_string(human_readable=True, separator="T", microseconds=True))
print(tuple(misc.progression(ratio=2, count=20)))
print(
    misc.merge_dicts({1: 2}, misc.nest_object((1,), 3)),
    misc.nested_dict_item({1: {2: 3}}, (1, 2)),
)
print(misc.randomize(180, round_result=True))
print(misc.call_stack())
misc.pretty_print(
    tuple(
        misc.process_path_items(
            path="${a_directory_with_few_child_items}",
            processor=lambda arg: __import__("os").stat(arg).st_size,
        )
    ),
    head="Path items:",
    tail="",
)

Timed execution decorator

import time

import pycfutils.miscellaneous as misc


@misc.timed_execution()
def func(arg0, kw0=1):
    time.sleep(0.2)
    return 5


func("123")

Networking

import pycfutils.network
from pycfutils.exceptions import NetworkException

try:
    print(pycfutils.network.connect_to_server("127.0.0.1", 22))
except NetworkException as e:
    print(e)

System

import pycfutils.system

pycfutils.system.cpu_stress(3)

GUI (Windows only)

import pycfutils.gui

print(pycfutils.gui.message_box("Title", "Text to display", x=320, y=200))

Building a native library (.dll / .so) with SetupTools

Parts of setup.py:

# Requires SetupTools (python -m pip install setuptools) for Python >= 3.12
from setuptools import setup

from pycfutils.setup.command.build_clibdll import build_clibdll
from pycfutils.setup.command.install_platlib import install_platlib  # Optional

dll = (
    "dll_name",
    {
        "sources": [
            "src0.c",
            "src1.c",
        ],
        # ...
        "dll": True,  # False (or nothing) for regular (static) library
        "copy_files": {  # Optional (copy artifacts)
            "dll_name.so": "pkg_name",  # dll_name.dll on Win
        },
        # ...
    },
)


setup(
    name="pkg_name",
    # ...
    cmdclass={
        "build_clib": build_clibdll,
        "install": install_platlib,
    },
    libraries=[dll],
    # ...
)

CLI tools

The tools folder contains CLI wrapper scripts. To list them and view their help:

Unix:

ls "pycfutils/tools"
for script in $(find "pycfutils/tools" -maxdepth 1 -type f); do python "${script}" -h; done

Windows:

dir /b "pycfutils\tools"
for /f %g in ('dir /b /a-d /a-l "pycfutils\tools\*.py"') do (python "pycfutils\tools\%g" -h)

They can also be run as modules. For example, in two separate terminals:

Terminal 1:

python -m pycfutils.tools.connect_to_server -a 127.0.0.1 -p 16180

# Go to Terminal 2 and start the server, then come back and re-run:

python -m pycfutils.tools.connect_to_server -a 127.0.0.1 -p 16180

Terminal 2:

python -m pycfutils.tools.start_server -a 127.0.0.1 -p 16180

Notes

• The package has no global dependencies outside the Python standard library. However, some subpackages have their own requirements:
  • pycfutils.setup.command: requires SetupTools (python -m pip install setuptools) for Python >= 3.12

Changelog

See CHANGELOG for a full list of changes.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please open an issue or submit a pull request on GitHub.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.