{"steps": 
 [
 {"step":"df -h","desc":"display disk space usage"},
 {"step":"date","desc":"display the current dater"},
 {"step":"time","desc":"display the current time"}
 ]
}

python batch.py

python batch.py xxx.json

$ python batch.py
Usage: python batch.py <batch_json_file>
note: execute the batch.json by default
# Execute batch.json begin
---------------------------

## Will execute 3 steps
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
0. [df -h]: display disk space usage
1. [date]: display the current dater
2. [time]: display the current time

* 0. [df -h]: display disk space usage
Filesystem       Size Used Avail Capacity iused ifree %iused Mounted on
/dev/disk1       233Gi 208Gi 24Gi 90% 54622825 6364694 90% /
devfs        329Ki 329Ki 0Bi 100%  

* 1. [date]: display the current dater
Thu Mar 3 22:50:21 CST 2016

* 2. [time]: display the current time

real 0m0.001s
user 0m0.000s
sys 0m0.000s

## Done the following steps
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
0. [df -h]: display disk space usage
1. [date]: display the current dater
# Execute batch.json end.

'''
 like bat file, execute the steps in batch.json 
'''
import os,sys,subprocess
import time,thread
import codecs
import json
from datetime import datetime
from subprocess import call
from pprint import pprint

def execute_json(json_file):
 print "# Execute {0} begin\n---------------------------".format(json_file)

 json_data=open(json_file)
 data = json.load(json_data)
 cnt = len(data['steps'])
 i = 0
 print "\n## Will execute {0} steps \n~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~".format(cnt)
 for i in range(0, cnt):
   print "{0}. [{1}]: {2}".format(i, data['steps'][i]['step'], data['steps'][i]['desc'])

 #pprint(data)
 #print("cnt=", cnt)
 for i in range(0, cnt):
  cmd = data['steps'][i]['step']
  desc = data['steps'][i]['desc']
  print "\n* {0}. [{1}]: {2} ".format(i, cmd, desc)

  if(cmd.startswith('cd')):
   cmd = cmd.replace("cd ", "")
   os.chdir(cmd)
  else:
   ret = os.system(cmd)
   if(ret != 0):
    print "Encounter error of step {0}. {1}, error code={2}".format(i, cmd, ret)
    break

 print "\n## Done the following steps\n~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"
 for j in range(0, i):
  print "{0}. [{1}]: {2}".format(j, data['steps'][j]['step'], data['steps'][j]['desc']) 
 json_data.close()
 print "# Execute {0} end.".format(json_file)

if __name__ == "__main__":
 argc = len(sys.argv)
 step_file = 'batch.json'
 if( argc > 1):
  idx = 1
  while(idx < argc):
   step_file = sys.argv[idx]
   execute_json(step_file)
   idx = idx + 1
 else:
  print "Usage: python {0} <batch_json_file>".format(sys.argv[0])
  print "note: execute the batch.json by default"
  execute_json(step_file)