Using "subprocess" without lists. . .?

[Michael Williams]

Hi All,

I've recently seen the "subprocess " module and am rather confused by
it's requirements. Is it not possible to execute an entire string
without having to break them up into a list of arguments? For
instance, I'd much rather do the following:


subprocess.call ("ls -al | grep -i test")


.. . .than to have to:


list = ["ls", "-a", "-l" ] . . . . . . and so on and so forth.
subprocess.call (list. . .)


What is the best way to go about executing a massively complex single
line command?


Thanks,
Michael

[Steven Bethard]

Re: Using "subproces s" without lists. . .?

Michael Williams wrote:

Hi All,
>
I've recently seen the "subprocess " module and am rather confused by
it's requirements. Is it not possible to execute an entire string
without having to break them up into a list of arguments? For instance,
I'd much rather do the following:
>
>
subprocess.call ("ls -al | grep -i test")
>
>
. . .than to have to:
>
>
list = ["ls", "-a", "-l" ] . . . . . . and so on and so forth.
subprocess.call (list. . .)
>
>
What is the best way to go about executing a massively complex single
line command?

You could always call "ls -al | grep -i test".split().

STeVe

[Peter Otten]

Re: Using "subproces s" without lists. . .?

Michael Williams wrote:

I've recently seen the "subprocess " module and am rather confused by
it's requirements. Is it not possible to execute an entire string
without having to break them up into a list of arguments? For
instance, I'd much rather do the following:
>
>
subprocess.call ("ls -al | grep -i test")

Try

subprocess.call ("ls -al | grep -i test", shell=True)

>
>
. . .than to have to:
>
>
list = ["ls", "-a", "-l" ] . . . . . . and so on and so forth.
subprocess.call (list. . .)

which avoids a lot of problems with shell quoting.

Peter

[Peter Otten]

Re: Using "subproces s" without lists. . .?

Steven Bethard wrote:

You could always call "ls -al | grep -i test".split().

Or better, shlex.split().

Peter