Why Python can not execute the cmd command 'tskill'? - python

In general, we can use Python to execute Windows's cmd command, for example:
os.system('ipconfig')
but I find that tskill can not be executed by Python, if I use:
os.system('tskill 8684')
to kill a process by its pid, Python will show cmd's error:
'tskill' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
but it work well if I use cmd to run the command.
As I know tskill.exe is located in C:\Windows\System32, but this path is not in Python's environment variable. It is maybe the reason, but ipconfig.exe is also in System32, it can be executed.
So why tskill can not be executed by os.system or subprocess.Popen?

I have found the root reason:
My Python is 32-bit, while My PC is Windows7 64-bit, so Python's os.system can not run tskill. If I use Python 64-bit instead, everything is OK.

Use taskkill, which can do pretty much everything as tskill
But if you want to stick to tskill.exe in your scripts/code. Please run the scripts from elevated command prompts. (Right click on cmd.exe and run it as administrator)
os.system('c:\windows\system32\tskill.exe 8684')

Related

why the same powershell command run on the powershell console but not using os.system?

I would like to include a command to create a 7zip archive withinin a Python script. Since I am working on Windows, I need to pass the command to the powershell console. I am planning to do it with os.system (I am aware that this is not the best way to do it and that I should use subprocess, but I really just need a quick fix and it would not be time effective for me to learn to use a new module in this context).
The following command works if run from the powershell console
&'C:\\Program Files\\7-Zip\\7z' a -mx=0 X:/myarch.zip X:/myarch
So I recreate the same string within python like this:
cmdl = r"&'C:\\Program Files\\7-Zip\\7z' a -mx=0 X:/myarch.zip X:/myarch"
The string is interpreted as follow:
"&'C:\\\\Program Files\\\\7-Zip\\\\7z' a -mx=0 X:/myarch.zip X:/myarch"
Now, if I copy-paste the above string within the powershell console, it runs without problems. However, if I run it within python using os.system(cmdl) I got the following error
"The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect"
Why is this the case and how can I fix this issue ?
os.system is meant for executing cmd commands, cmd commands can be ran in powershell maybe after all powershell is a bit advanced but I'm sure that you can't run a cmd command in powershell, henceforth your code is not working.
However a creative solution for executing a powershell command from python(not using python) would be to write your command into a .ps file(powershell script)and then run it using os.startfile()(use this code: os.startfile("script.ps"))

Unable to call bash script using os.system() on Windows

I have a very simple bash script test.sh as shown below
#!/usr/bin/env bash
mkdir "/c/AAA"
I want to execute this code in python. When I call os.system(r"Y:\test.sh") in python, a window pops up and asks me which program I want to open the test.sh with. Then python will end with output 0 and no folder is created in my C drive. I can't find any solution online. Any help will be appreciated. :)
os.system() will invoke your command the same as windows cmd would, in this case, the windows doesn't know how to execute *.sh files, so it opens it's default dialog so you can pick one program that you know can ran it.
The same will happen if you open windows terminal and try to invoke such file.
If your windows have a bash interpreter try invoking it like this:
os.system("bash Y:\test.sh")
Instead of running this with a native-Windows Python interpreter, run it with a Cygwin copy of Python, which has an os.system() that will be invoked with the Cygwin /bin/sh.

Cannot run MATLAB from bash script under Windows/MSYS2

I need to run a MATLAB script from a Python script. I don't care about the output of it nor do I need to give it any arguments.
However, MATLAB R2016B's "engine" does not support Python 3.7 (Upgrading Matlab or down-grading python is not an option at this time)
So, I decided to make a shell script that runs it:
#!matlab -nodisplay -nodesktop -r 'try; myMatlabScript; catch; end; quit'
Now I need to run a bash script from Python. To do so, I did:
import subprocess
subprocess.call("./mybashscript.sh")
(And yes, the python script is at the same level as the shell script)
The python script does not complain directly. However, I do get the following:
'.' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
Which to me means that since Windows doesn't directly have bash, it doesn't know what to do with this shell script. I am not sure how to handle this. Some way to tell Python to use MSYS instead of Windows for the shell?
And thus the MATLAB script does not appear to run at all.
When I attempt under Linux (just for testing, I can't run it here for performance reasons), I get:
./mybashscript.sh: matlab: bad interpreter: No such file or directory
Is it possible this is because I didn't do the command addpath(genpath('.'))? If so, I'm not sure how I would do that in the shell script, and some help would be appreciated.
Or some other better solution would also be great.
1: Needed to re-name mybashscript.sh to mybashscript.bat
2: Needed to change the sub-process call to subprocess.call("mybashscript.bat") (as ./ was confusing the windows shell)
3: Needed to add the path properly. Here is what the batch script looked like:
matlab -nodisplay -nodesktop -r "addpath(genpath('C:/path/to/myscript')); myMatlabScript"
The double quotes are neccesary so the single quotes inside genpath do not cause it to end early.
And that was it!
EDIT: You can add -wait in the batch file to get the script to wait until it is complete before handing back to the Python script.

Most command prompt commands not working in os.system()

I'm pretty new to python and I am learning how to use basic command line operations with os.system() (os module)
I haven't been able to use TASKKILL recently and I need it for a python script I'm working on.
When I try to use TASKKILL in command prompt separately it doesn't work either. Only when I open the command prompt as administrator does it work.
The error I get:
'TASKKILL' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
I'm currently using Windows 10 and Python 2.7.13, would appreciate anyone's help.
Thank you

os.system doesn't work in Python

I'm working on windows vista, but I'm running python from DOS command. I have this simple python program. (It's actually one py file named test.py)
import os
os.system('cd ..')
When I execute "python test.py" from a Dos command, it doesn't work.
For example, if the prompt Dos Command before execution was this:
C:\Directory>
After execution, must be this:
C:\>
Help Plz.
First, you generally don't want to use os.system - take a look at the subprocess module instead. But, that won't solve your immediate problem (just some you might have down the track) - the actual reason cd won't work is because it changes the working directory of the subprocess, and doesn't affect the process Python is running in - to do that, use os.chdir.
I don't really use Windows, but you can try cmd /k yourcommandhere. This executes the command and then returns to the CMD prompt.
So for example, maybe you can do what you want like this:
subprocess.call(['cmd', '/k', 'cd .. && prompt changed'])
As I said, I am not familiar with Windows, so the syntax could be wrong, but you should get the idea.
In case you don't know, this is a different CMD instance than the one you were in before you started your python script. So when you exit, your python script should continue execution, and after it's done, you'll be back to your original CMD.

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