running multiple bash commands with subprocess

python bash subprocess
Paul picture Paul · Jul 19, 2013 · Viewed 118.3k times · Source

If I run echo a; echo b in bash the result will be that both commands are run. However if I use subprocess then the first command is run, printing out the whole of the rest of the line. The code below echos a; echo b instead of a b, how do I get it to run both commands?

import subprocess, shlex
def subprocess_cmd(command):
    process = subprocess.Popen(shlex.split(command), stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
    proc_stdout = process.communicate()[0].strip() 
    print proc_stdout

subprocess_cmd("echo a; echo b")

Answer

bougui picture bougui · Jul 19, 2013

You have to use shell=True in subprocess and no shlex.split:

def subprocess_cmd(command):
    process = subprocess.Popen(command,stdout=subprocess.PIPE, shell=True)
    proc_stdout = process.communicate()[0].strip()
    print proc_stdout

subprocess_cmd('echo a; echo b')

returns:

a
b

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