import sys # if the database is not supplied on the commandline if sys.argv[1] == None: sys.exit(2) target = open("log", 'r') print sys.argv[1] database_to_merge = str(sys.argv[1]) for line in target: if str(line[:-1]) == database_to_merge: print "Already merged this database" target.close() sys.exit(3) print line target.close()