raw_input vs input

To read a line from stdin before Python 3, you had to use the raw_input function instead of input. Usage of input was pretty dangerous since it executes the input line:

$ echo '[x ** 2 for x in range(10)]' | python2 -c 'print input()'
[0, 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81]

In Python 3 input just reads the line and raw_input is gone.

If you want to support both Python 2 and Python 3, you can do something like this:

from contextlib import suppress

with suppress(NameError):
    input = raw_input

The popular six module already does this for you. It provides input function that only reads the line.