import sys modline = "// -*- Mode: c++; c-basic-offset: 4; tab-width: 4; -*-\n\n" for path in sys.argv[1:]: lines = [modline] with file(path) as f: lines += f.readlines() has_modeline = any([l for l in lines[1:] if l.find('Mode: c++') != -1]) if has_modeline: continue with file(path, 'w') as f: for line in lines: f.write(line)