Using terminal command to search through files for a specific string within a python script

changing current folder to parent

import os    
os.chdir("..")

changing folder

import os
os.chdir(dir_of_your_choice)

finding files with a rule in the current folder

import glob
import os
current_dir = os.getcwd()
for f in glob.glob('*string*'):
    do_things(f)

import os
#sourceFolder is the folder you're going to be looking inside for backslashes are a special character in python so they're escaped as double backslashes
sourceFolder = "C:\\FolderBeingSearched\\"

myFiles = []

# Find all files in the directory
for file in os.listdir(sourceFolder):
    myFiles.append(file)

#open them for editing
for file in myFiles:
    try:
        open(sourceFolder + file,'r')
    except:
        continue 

    #run whatever code you need to do on each open file here
    print("opened %s" % file)

EDIT: If you want to separate all files that contain a string (this just prints the list at the end currently):

import os
#sourceFolder is the folder you're going to be looking inside for backslashes are a special character in python so they're escaped as double backslashes
sourceFolder = "C:\\FolderBeingSearched\\"

myFiles = []
filesContainString = []
stringsImLookingFor = ['first','second']
# Find all files in the directory
for file in os.listdir(sourceFolder):
    myFiles.append(file)

#open them for editing
for file in myFiles:

    looking = sourceFolder + file

    try:
        open(looking,'r')        
    except:
        continue 

    print("opened %s" % file)

    found = 0
    with open(looking,encoding="latin1") as in_file:
        for line in in_file:
            for x in stringsImLookingFor:
                if line.find(x) != -1:
                    #do whatever you need to do to the file or add it to a list like I am
                    filesContainString.append(file)
                    found = 1
                    break
            if found:
                break

print(filesContainString)