Launch a shell command with in a python script, wait for the termination and return to the script

Davide Gualano picture Davide Gualano · Nov 28, 2008 · Viewed 166.9k times · Source

I've a python script that has to launch a shell command for every file in a dir:

import os

files = os.listdir(".")
for f in files:
    os.execlp("myscript", "myscript", f)

This works fine for the first file, but after the "myscript" command has ended, the execution stops and does not come back to the python script.

How can I do? Do I have to fork() before calling os.execlp()?

Answer

user39307 picture user39307 · Nov 28, 2008

subprocess: The subprocess module allows you to spawn new processes, connect to their input/output/error pipes, and obtain their return codes.

http://docs.python.org/library/subprocess.html

Usage:

import subprocess
process = subprocess.Popen(command, shell=True, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
process.wait()
print process.returncode