TypeError: expected string or buffer python re.search

Question

I'm trying to make a project that scans for MAC addresses in my network and either allows them or ban them from my local network. I wrote this script to get familiar with the re and pynetgear module to accomplish this because I plan to use these addresses to store data to determine which device is which. Everything I've tried doesn't work or I tried looking up the problem on here and other resources but no one has helped me so far.

I've tried looking at documentation of regex but couldn't figure out what this problem is. The first code all the way up to Devices work its just MAC down that calls the TypeError.

from pynetgear import Netgear
import re

netgear = Netgear(password='password')

devices = netgear.get_attached_devices()

MAC = re.search(r"mac=..:..:..:..:..:..", devices)
print(MAC.group(0))

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/z33k/Desktop/python/adhdResearch.py", line 8, in <module>
    MAC = re.search(r"mac=..:..:..:..:..:..", devices)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/re.py", line 146, in search
    return _compile(pattern, flags).search(string)
TypeError: expected string or buffer

devices is a variable that stores the results of the netgear. get_attached_devices. Do I need to convert it into a string? — zach
– zach, Commented Jul 14, 2019 at 17:59
First I would examine the returned devices. Maybe the data you seek is already in a form you could use. — rickhg12hs
– rickhg12hs, Commented Jul 14, 2019 at 18:02
Yes, it needs to be a string. You still haven't said what its type is however. You can do print(type(devices)) to see this — Akaisteph7
– Akaisteph7, Commented Jul 14, 2019 at 18:03

Daniel Roseman · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-14 18:03:53Z

2

I don't think you need regex here at all.

According to the PyNetgear docs, get_attached_devices returns a list of named tuples. You will need to iterate through the list and print the mac value:

for item in devices:
    print(item.mac)

answered Jul 14, 2019 at 18:03

Daniel Roseman

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SyntaxError · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-14 18:08:20Z

0

re.search requires a string or buffer, but devices is a list containing namedtuples.

You can see for yourself in the source code:

https://github.com/MatMaul/pynetgear/blob/247d6b9524fcee4b2da0e65ca12c52ebdd3676b2/pynetgear/init.py#L46-L49

https://github.com/MatMaul/pynetgear/blob/247d6b9524fcee4b2da0e65ca12c52ebdd3676b2/pynetgear/init.py#L224-L241

Printing out the MAC Addresses:

for device in devices: print(device.mac)

As for allowing or banning the individual addresses, I unfortunately don't know.

answered Jul 14, 2019 at 18:08

SyntaxError

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1 Comment

zach Over a year ago

Thank you for still helping.

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