running a shell command from a python program

[Sandman]

Hi,
I'm a newbie, so please be gentle :-)

How would I run a shell command in Python?

Here is what I want to do:
I want to run a shell command that outputs some stuff, save it into a
list and do stuff with the contents of that list.

I started with a BASH script actually, until I realized I really needed
better data structures :-)

Is popen the answer? Also, where online would I get access to good
sample code that I could peruse?

I'm running 2.2.3 on Linux, and going strictly by online doc so far.

Thanks!
S C

[Thomas Guettler]

Re: running a shell command from a python program

Am Wed, 23 Feb 2005 07:00:31 -0800 schrieb Sandman:
[color=blue]
> Hi,
> I'm a newbie, so please be gentle :-)
>
> How would I run a shell command in Python?[/color]
[cut][color=blue]
> Is popen the answer? Also, where online would I get access to good
> sample code that I could peruse?[/color]

Yes, popen is the answer. I recommend popen4 because it avoids
deadlocks if there is output on stdout and stderr.

Example:
stdout, stdin = popen2.popen4(" tidy -q -errors '%s'" % htmlfile)

HTH,
Thomas

--
Thomas Güttler, http://www.thomas-guettler.de/

[Sandman]

Re: running a shell command from a python program

Doh, use the search Luke:

http://www.wellho.net/forum/Programming-in-Python-and-Ruby/Running-shell-commands-from-Python.html

Seems like popen is the way to go.

S

[Leif B. Kristensen]

Re: running a shell command from a python program

Sandman wrote:
[color=blue]
> How would I run a shell command in Python?
>
> Here is what I want to do:
> I want to run a shell command that outputs some stuff, save it into a
> list and do stuff with the contents of that list.[/color]

There's a Python Cookbook example that should fit nicely with what
you're trying to do here:

<http://aspn.activestat e.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/52296>
--
Leif Biberg Kristensen

[aurora]

Re: running a shell command from a python program

In Python 2.4, use the new subprocess module for this. It subsume the
popen* methods.
[color=blue]
> Hi,
> I'm a newbie, so please be gentle :-)
>
> How would I run a shell command in Python?
>
> Here is what I want to do:
> I want to run a shell command that outputs some stuff, save it into a
> list and do stuff with the contents of that list.
>
> I started with a BASH script actually, until I realized I really needed
> better data structures :-)
>
> Is popen the answer? Also, where online would I get access to good
> sample code that I could peruse?
>
> I'm running 2.2.3 on Linux, and going strictly by online doc so far.
>
> Thanks!
> S C
>[/color]