[redhead]

Works for me:

~> cat test.pl
#!/usr/bin/python
#
f = open("stud.txt")
lines = f.readlines()
for line in lines:
     # do something with line
     line_head = line[0:6]
     line_tail = line[6:-1]
     print "Line Head: " + line_head
     print "Line Tail: " + line_tail
~> cat stud.txt
122323fred
334344man
~> ./test.pl
Line Head: 122323
Line Tail: fred
Line Head: 334344
Line Tail: man