import fileinput, sys
for line in fileinput.input(["test.txt"], inplace=True):
    line = line.replace("car", "truck")
    # sys.stdout is redirected to the file
    sys.stdout.write(line)

filename = "/etc/ipf.conf"
text = open(filename).read()
open(filename, "w").write(text.replace(LASTKNOWN, CURRENT))

from __future__ import with_statement
from contextlib import nested

in_filename, outfilename = "/etc/ipf.conf", "/tmp/ipf.conf"
with nested(open(in_filename), open(outfilename, "w")) as in_, out:
     for line in in_:
         out.write(line.replace(LASTKNOWN, CURRENT))
os.rename(outfilename, in_filename)

f = open(filename, "r")
lines = f.readlines()

# Assume that change_ip is a function that takes a string and returns a new one with the ip changed): example below
ret_lines = [change_ip(lines) for line in lines]
new_file = open(new_filename, "w")
new_file.writelines(lines)

def change_ip(str):
   ''' Gets a string, returns a new string where the ip is changed '''
   # Add implementation, something like: return str.replace(old_ip, new_ip) or something similair.

Simply a test file 175.48.204.168

And two times 175.48.204.168 on this line 175.48.204.168

Done.

Simply a test file 10.73.144.112

And two times 10.73.144.112 on this line 10.73.144.112

Done.

import socket
import fileinput
import subprocess
import string
import re

CURRENT = socket.getaddrinfo(socket.gethostname(), None)[0][4][0]
LASTKNOWN = '175.48.204.168'

if CURRENT == LASTKNOWN:
    print 'Nevermind.'
    subprocess.sys.exit()

else:

    cf = open("/tmp/iiiipf.conf", "r")
    lns = cf.readlines()
    # close it so that we can open for writing later
    cf.close()

    # assumes LASTKNOWN and CURRENT are strings with dotted notation IP addresses
    lns = "".join(lns)
    lns = re.sub(LASTKNOWN, CURRENT, lns)  # This replaces all occurences of LASTKNOWN with CURRENT

    cf = open("/tmp/iiiipf.conf", "w")
    cf.write(lns)
    cf.close()

import in_place

with in_place.InPlace('data.txt') as file:
    for line in file:
        line = line.replace('test', 'testZ')
        file.write(line)