import sys from random import randint check_start = False start = '' fn = sys.argv[1] if len(sys.argv) > 2: start = sys.argv[2] check_start = True lines = [] with open(fn) as f: for line in f: nline = line.replace("\n", "") lines.append(nline) if check_start: line_sub = [] for i in lines: if i.startswith(start): line_sub.append(i) numitems = len(line_sub) i = randint(0,numitems-1) print(line_sub[i]) else: numitems = len(lines) i = randint(0,numitems-1) print(lines[i])