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14. Generic Operating System Services

The modules described in this chapter provide interfaces to operating system features that are available on (almost) all operating systems, such as files and a clock. The interfaces are generally modeled after the Unix or C interfaces, but they are available on most other systems as well. Here's an overview:

`os` |  | Miscellaneous operating system interfaces.
`time` |  | Time access and conversions.
`optparse` |  | More convenient, flexible, and powerful command-line parsing library.
`getopt` |  | Portable parser for command line options; support both short and long option names.
`logging` |  | Logging module for Python based on PEP 282.
`getpass` |  | Portable reading of passwords and retrieval of the userid.
`curses` |  | An interface to the curses library, providing portable terminal handling.
`curses.textpad` |  | Emacs-like input editing in a curses window.
`curses.wrapper` |  | Terminal configuration wrapper for curses programs.
`curses.ascii` |  | Constants and set-membership functions for ASCII characters.
`curses.panel` |  | A panel stack extension that adds depth to curses windows.
`platform` |  | Retrieves as much platform identifying data as possible.
`errno` |  | Standard errno system symbols.
`ctypes` |  | A foreign function library for Python.