UTF-8 to EBCDIC using iconv in Python-script on USS - python-2.7

Question

I am trying to convert utf-8 files from a directory listing on USS into ebcdic files BEFORE getting them into z/OS datasets.
Using a helper function which I found on stackoverflow (thanks for this!) I can issue shell-commands from within the python script:
def r(cmd_line):
return Popen(cmd_line.split(), stdout=PIPE).communicate()[0]
With this I can allocate and populate mainframe datasets from USS-files, using
r("tso alloc DSNAME(...) etc.") # to allocate a mainframe DS and
r("tso oget ...") # to populate the mainframe DS
However: some files need to be converted first, which in a shellscript I would simply code with
iconv -f UTF-8 -t IBM-1141 $utf8_file > $ebcdic_file
and I am totally at a loss of how to do this in python (2.7)?
Can't ask anybody in my shop since python was newly installed and I am currently the only one interested in it. Anyone an idea? Thanks a lot in advance!

Answer 1

Although not in the true spirit of python, you can do what you want by wrapping USS commands in a python script. Here is an example:
#!/bin/env python
from cStringIO import StringIO
import os
import sys
def r(cmd):
import subprocess
return subprocess.Popen(cmd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE).communicate()[0]
def allocate_dataset(dsName):
name = "'" + dsName + "'"
out = r(['/bin/tso', 'alloc', 'ds(' + name + ')', 'space(6000 2000)', 'track', 'lrecl(80)',
'dsntype(library)', 'blksize(3200)', 'recfm(f b)', 'dir(2)', 'new'])
for line in out.split():
print line
def not_allocated(dsName):
name = "'" + dsName + "'"
out = r(['/bin/tsocmd', 'listds ' + name])
for line in out.split():
if "NOT IN CATALOG" in out:
return True
return False
def ascii_to_ebcdic(from_codepage, to_codepage, fileName):
os.system('iconv -f' + from_codepage + ' -t' + to_codepage + ' <' + fileName + ' >ebcdic_' + fileName)
def copy_to_dataset(fileName, dsName, memberName):
dsn = "//'" + dsName + '(' + memberName + ")'"
os.system('cp -T ' + fileName + ' "' + dsn + '"')
def main():
dsName = "HLQ.MY.PYTHON"
if not_allocated(dsName):
print("Allocating '" + dsName + "' data set")
allocate_dataset(dsName)
ascii_to_ebcdic("UTF-8", "IBM-1047", "test.txt")
copy_to_dataset("ebcdic_test.txt", "HLQ.MY.PYTHON", "TXT")
member = "//'HLQ.MY.PYTHON(TXT)'"
os.system('cat -v "' + member + '"')
main()