import shutil import tempfile import sys import re rex = "@FILENAME@" filename = sys.argv[1] fh = file("header.txt") header = fh.read() header_translated = re.sub(r'@FILENAME@', filename, header) fh.close() f = file(filename) lines = f.read() f.close() lines = re.sub(r'(?s)/\*\+.*\+\*/','',lines) lines = header_translated + lines with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(delete=False) as tmp_sources: tmp_sources.write(lines) shutil.move(tmp_sources.name, filename)