Python snippet to remove C and C++ comments

import subprocess
from cStringIO import StringIO

input = StringIO(source_code) # source_code is a string with the source code.
output = StringIO()

process = subprocess.Popen(['sed', '/path/to/remccoms3.sed'],
    input=input, output=output)
return_code = process.wait()

stripped_code = output.getvalue()

//.*?n|/*.*?*/

def stripcomments(text):
    return re.sub('//.*?n|/*.*?*/', '', text, re.S)

//.*?(rn?|n)|/*.*?*/

def comment_remover(text):
    def replacer(match):
        s = match.group(0)
        if s.startswith('/'):
            return ""
        else:
            return s
    pattern = re.compile(
        r'//.*?$|/*.*?*/|'(?:\.|[^\'])*'|"(?:\.|[^\"])*"',
        re.DOTALL | re.MULTILINE
    )
    return re.sub(pattern, replacer, text)

" */ /* SCC has been trained to know about strings /* */ */"!
""Double quotes embedded in strings, \" too'!"
"And
newlines in them"

"And escaped double quotes at the end of a string""

aa '\
n' OK
aa """
aa "
n"

This is followed by C++/C99 comment number 1.
// C++/C99 comment with
continuation character
on three source lines (this should not be seen with the -C fla
The C++/C99 comment number 1 has finished.

This is followed by C++/C99 comment number 2.
/
/
C++/C99 comment (this should not be seen with the -C flag)
The C++/C99 comment number 2 has finished.

This is followed by regular C comment number 1.
/
*
Regular
comment
*
/
The regular C comment number 1 has finished.

/
/ This is not a C++/C99 comment!

This is followed by C++/C99 comment number 3.
/


/ But this is a C++/C99 comment!
The C++/C99 comment number 3 has finished.

/
* This is not a C or C++  comment!

This is followed by regular C comment number 2.
/
*/ This is a regular C comment *
but this is just a routine continuation *
and that was not the end either - but this is *

/
The regular C comment number 2 has finished.

This is followed by regular C comment number 3.
/



* C comment */

cpp -fpreprocessed foo.c

#!/usr/bin/python
"""
 A simple script to remove block comments of the form /** */ from files
 Use example: ./strip_comments.py *.java
 Author: holdtotherod
 Created: 3/6/11
"""
import sys
import fileinput

for file in sys.argv[1:]:
    inBlockComment = False
    for line in fileinput.input(file, inplace = 1):
        if "/**" in line:
            inBlockComment = True
        if inBlockComment and "*/" in line:
            inBlockComment = False
            # If the */ isn't last, remove through the */
            if line.find("*/") != len(line) - 3:
                line = line[line.find("*/")+2:]
            else:
                continue
        if inBlockComment:
            continue
        sys.stdout.write(line)