--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/python/url.py	Fri Jul 03 21:07:03 2015 -0700
@@ -0,0 +1,139 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+
+"""
+url manipulation
+"""
+
+import argparse
+import os
+import shutil
+import subprocess
+import sys
+import tempfile
+import urlparse
+import urllib2
+
+__all__ = ['load', 'main']
+string = (str, unicode)
+
+def ensure_dir(directory):
+    """ensure `directory` is a directory"""
+    if os.path.exists(directory):
+        assert os.path.isdir(directory)
+        return directory
+    os.makedirs(directory)
+    return directory
+
+def isURL(url):
+    return '://' in url
+
+def read_s3(url):
+    name = tempfile.mktemp()
+    try:
+        subprocess.check_output(['s3cmd', 'get', url, name])
+        with open(name) as f:
+            read = f.read()
+        os.remove(name)
+        return read
+    finally:
+        if os.path.exists(name):
+            os.remove(name)
+
+def read_http(url):
+    return urllib2.urlopen(url).read()
+
+def read_file(url):
+    scheme = 'file://'
+    if url.startswith(scheme):
+        url = url[len(scheme):]
+    return open(url).read()
+
+loaders = {'s3': read_s3,
+           'http': read_http,
+           'https': read_http,
+           'file': read_file
+       }
+
+def scheme(url):
+    if '://' in url:
+        parsed = urlparse.urlsplit(url)
+        return parsed.scheme
+    return 'file'
+
+def parent(url):
+    if '://' in url:
+        return url.rsplit('/', 1)[0]
+    else:
+        # file
+        return os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(url))
+
+def basename(url):
+    if '://' in url:
+        return url.rsplit('/', 1)[-1]
+    else:
+        # file
+        return os.path.basename(url)
+
+def loader(url):
+    return loaders[scheme(url)]
+
+def load(url):
+    """returns the contents of a URL"""
+    return loader(url)(url)
+
+def get_file(src, dest):
+    shutil.copy2(src, dest)
+
+def get_s3(src, dest):
+    subprocess.check_output(['s3cmd', 'get', src, dest])
+
+def default_getter(src, dest):
+    assert not os.path.isURL(dest)
+    dirname = parent(dest)
+    ensure_dir(dirname)
+    with open(dest, 'w') as f:
+        f.write(load(url))
+
+getters = {'file': get_file,
+           's3': get_s3
+       }
+
+def get(src, dest):
+    """get a thing to a local file"""
+    if os.path.isdir(dest):
+        dest = os.path.join(dest, basename(src))
+    return getters.get(scheme(src), default_getter)(src, dest)
+
+def rel(base, path):
+    """
+    relative path to base
+    otherwise, return None
+    """
+
+    if path.startswith(base):
+        return path[len(base):]
+
+def main(args=sys.argv[1:]):
+    """CLI"""
+
+    # parse command line
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description=__doc__)
+    parser.add_argument('url', help='URL to read')
+    parser.add_argument('-o', '--output', dest='output',
+                        help="get to this location")
+    options = parser.parse_args(args)
+
+    if options.output:
+        # copy src to this location
+        get(options.url, options.output)
+        sys.exit()
+
+    # read location
+    contents = load(options.url)
+
+    # output
+    print (contents)
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    main()