I have written a python program that needs a first command line argument to run from the Terminal. The program can be used to copy a text to the clipboard when it is run with a certain keyword.
~ python3 mclip.py 'agree'
This use case is just an exercise to understand, how I can run a batch file on macOS (or shell script in macOS terminology).
I have created the following shell script and saved it as mclip.command:
#!/usr/bin/env bash
python3 /Users/Andrea_5K/mclip.py
My idea is to execute my shell script from the spotlight input window, passing the argument 'agree'. How can I do that?
On windows the batch file would look like that (mclip.bat):
#py.exe C:\path_to_my_file\mclip.py %*
#pause
I can press WIN-R and type mclip *argument* to run the program. But how can I do the same on a Mac? I cannot type mclip agree in spotlight, that doesn't work like in WIN-R.
#! python3
# mclip.py - A multi-clipboard program.
TEXT = {
'agree': """Yes, I agree. That sounds fine to me.""",
'busy': """Sorry, can we do this later this week or next week?""",
'upsell': """Would you consider making this a monthly donation?""",
}
import sys, pyperclip
if len(sys.argv) < 2:
print('Usage: python mclip.py [keyphrase] - copy phrase text')
sys.exit()
keyphrase = sys.argv[1] # first command line arg is the keyphrase
if keyphrase in TEXT:
pyperclip.copy(TEXT[keyphrase])
print('Text for ' + keyphrase + ' copied to clipboard.')
else:
print('There is no text for ' + keyphrase)
I can get Spotlight to run a script which:
offers you a dialog box with your three options and
then runs your Python script passing the selected option
But I cannot get Spotlight to pass an option to a Python script directly. If that helps, here's how to do it.
Start Script Editor and enter the following code, save it as an app called mclip:
set theArg to choose from list {"Agree", "Busy", "Upsell"} with title "Chooser Dialog" with prompt "Choose option"
tell application "Terminal"
do shell script "/Users/YOURNAME/mclip.py " & theArg
end tell
Note that adding on run argv at the top still doesn't get you any arguments you add within Spotlight - it just plain doesn't seem to want to pass on any arguments you type in the Spotlight dialog.
Now write a Python script called $HOME/mclip.py:
#!/usr/bin/env python3
import os, sys
# Just write the received parameter into a text file on the Desktop to show how it works
file = os.path.expanduser("~/Desktop/result.txt")
with open(file, 'w') as f:
f.write(sys.argv[1])
And make it executable (just necessary one time) with:
chmod +x $HOME/mclip.py
If you now use Spotlight to run mclip, it will pop up a dialog like this:
You may have to answer security questions the first time you run it - depending on your macOS version.
Note that if all your Python script does is copy some text onto the clipboard, you can do that without Python within the Applescript above using:
set the clipboard to "Some funky text"
Just a detail: python is case sensitive. So, if the keys of the dictionary are lower case, the list values in the apple script ought to be lower case to `:D
Assume the shell script (mapIt.command) is:
#!/usr/bin/env bash
python3 /path/to/my/pythonScript.py $#
The $# is interpreted as a list of command line arguments.
I can run the shell script in the MacOS Terminal like that:
sh mapIt.command Streetname Number City
The command line arguments Streetname Number City are forwarded to the python script.
I have a Python script that executes an apple script. I'd like to print to terminal from within the apple script.
Here is my Python code.
import applescript
myfunction = """
do shell script "echo " & "words to terminal"
"""
def runfunction():
applescript.tell.app("Terminal", myfunction, background = False)
And then I execute this with python -c 'import myapplescript; print myapplescript.runfunction()'
I've tried to print to terminal from within the apple script using the "do shell script" phrase and also copy "Hello World!" to stdout
import applescript
That is not a very good library. If your needs are simple, I would just use subprocess directly.
Also be aware that osascript is limited in its own IO support. There’s no built-in way to access stdin, and the only data that gets written to stdout is the last value (if any) returned at the end of the script. (You can write to stderr at any time using the log command, though that will have its own set of issues.)
If you want to access stdin/stdout directly in your AppleScript code, you’ll have to use Cocoa’s NSFileHandle class. I wrote a File library some years back that provided easy-to-use wrappers around that, though I don’t maintain or support it.
If your needs are more advanced—e.g. you want to call one or more AppleScript handlers or pass anything more complex than simple (short) strings—and you have PyObjC installed, you’d be better using [this library] (https://pypi.org/project/py-applescript/) or the AppleScript-ObjC bridge.
I was using python project pick to select an option from a list. Below code returns the option and index.
option, index = pick(options, title)
Pick uses curses library from python. I want to pass the output of my python script to shell script.
variable output = $(pythonfile.py)
but it gets stuck on the curses screen. It cannot draw anything. What can be the reason for this?
pick gets stuck because when you use $(pythonfile.py), the shell redirects the output of pythonfile.py as if it were a pipe. Also, the output of pick contains characters for updating the screen (not what you want). You can work around those problems by
redirecting the output of pythonfile.py to /dev/tty
ensuring that your pythonfile.py writes its result to the standard error, and
directing the standard error in the shell script to the output of the $(...) construct.
For example:
#!/bin/bash
foo=$(python basic.py 2>&1 >/dev/tty )
echo "result '$foo'"
and in pythonfile.py, doing
import sys
print(option, index, file=sys.stderr)
rather than
print(option, index)
To pass the output of a Python script to a Bash variable you need to specify the command with which to open the python file inside the variable's declaration.
Like so:
variable_output=$(python pythonfile.py)
Furthermore, if you'd like to pass a variable from Python to bash you could use Python's sys module and then redirect the stderr.
Like so:
test.py
import sys
test_var = (str(3 + 3))
sys.exit(test_var)
test.sh
test_var=$(python3 test.py 2>&1)
echo $testvar
Now, if we run test.sh we get the output 6.
I am working on a project with Python in which I am supposed to execute shell script with Python.
I have written a simple program from which I am able to execute shell script with my python code. But now I need to pass certain parameters from my Python code to the shell script and then print out those parameters by executing the shell script.
For the simplicity sake, Currently I am executing shell script which will print out Hello World but now I want to pass hostname and pp and sp values to my shell script and then print out those values from the shell script when it is getting execute by Python client.
#!/usr/bin/python
import subprocess
import json
import socket
hostname = socket.gethostname()
jsonData = '{"desc": "some information about the host", "pp": [0,3,5,7,9], "sp": [1,2,4,6,8]}'
jj = json.loads(jsonData)
print jj['pp'] # printing it from Python program for now
print jj['sp'] # printing it from Python program for now
print hostname # printing it from Python program for now
# pass the above values to my shell script
jsonStr = '{"script":"#!/bin/bash\\necho Hello World\\n"}'
j = json.loads(jsonStr)
print "start"
subprocess.call(j['script'], shell=True)
print "end"
In general, I want to pass, hostname, pp and sp values to my shell script as shown in jsonStr and then print out those values from the shell script itself when I run my Python code.
So it should print out like this whenever I execute my shell script in jsonStr-
start
Hello world
[0, 3, 5, 7, 9]
[1, 2, 4, 6, 8]
myhostname
end
Is this possible to do it in Python?
There are two ways to pass variables to a script: as arguments, or through the environment.
Since you're trying to execute a script as if it were a giant command line (which won't actually work—especially if you're escaping your newlines as \\n so the shell sees the whole thing as one line—but let's pretend it would), you can't pass arguments, so you will need to pass an environment.
This is trivial:
env = {}
env.update(os.environ)
env.update(jj)
subprocess.call('echo ${pp}', shell=True, env=env)
This will print out whatever was in jj[pp], and return 0.
Why? Well, in bash, ${pp} means "whatever is in the environment variable pp". And we copied every key-value pair from jj into the env environment, so the environment variable pp has whatever value was in jj[pp]. (In some cases you might want to quote things, e.g. "${pp}", but for echo there's no reason to do that, and without knowing what you're going to do in your real-life code I can't guess what you might need.)
If you actually had a script that you wanted to call, stored in a file, then of course you could pass it arguments the same way you do with any other program you run via subprocess, and inside the script you could reference them as $1, etc.
However, I don't see why you need to pass arguments to a script you're building on the fly. Just build the values into the script. While that's usually a bad idea, that's mainly because building a script on the fly is a bad idea, and you've already committed to that part for some reason. Format your strings in Python, where you have access to the full power of str.format or % (as you prefer), and the entire Python stdlib. For example:
script = 'echo {}'.format(shlex.quote(jj['pp']))
subprocess.call(script, shell=True)
Now the script doesn't have to do anything to access the value; it's hard-coded into the script.
Background
I would like my Python script to pause before exiting using something similar to:
raw_input("Press enter to close.")
but only if it is NOT run via command line. Command line programs shouldn't behave this way.
Question
Is there a way to determine if my Python script was invoked from the command line:
$ python myscript.py
verses double-clicking myscript.py to open it with the default interpreter in the OS?
If you're running it without a terminal, as when you click on "Run" in Nautilus, you can just check if it's attached to a tty:
import sys
if sys.stdin and sys.stdin.isatty():
# running interactively
print("running interactively")
else:
with open('output','w') as f:
f.write("running in the background!\n")
But, as ThomasK points out, you seem to be referring to running it in a terminal that closes just after the program finishes. I think there's no way to do what you want without a workaround; the program is running in a regular shell and attached to a terminal. The decision of exiting immediately is done just after it finishes with information it doesn't have readily available (the parameters passed to the executing shell or terminal).
You could go about examining the parent process information and detecting differences between the two kinds of invocations, but it's probably not worth it in most cases. Have you considered adding a command line parameter to your script (think --interactive)?
What I wanted was answered here: Determine if the program is called from a script in Python
You can just determine between "python" and "bash". This was already answered I think, but you can keep it short as well.
#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import psutil
import os
ppid = os.getppid() # Get parent process id
print(psutil.Process(ppid).name())
I don't think there's any reliable way to detect this (especially in a cross-platform manner). For example on OS X, when you double-click a .py file and it tuns with "Python Launcher", it runs in a terminal, identically to if you execute it manually.
Although it may have other issues, you could package the script up with something like py2exe or Platypus, then you can have the double-clickable icon run a specific bit of code to differentiate (import mycode; mycode.main(gui = True) for example)
If you run python IDLE then "pythonw.exe" is being used to run coding while when you run the command line "python.exe" is used to run coding. The python folder path can vary so you have to revert the path to the python folder. m = '\\' and m = m[0] is to get m to be '\' because of escaping.
import sys
a = sys.executable
m = '\\'
m = m[0]
while True:
b = len(a)
c = a[(b - 1)]
if c == m:
break
a = a[:(b - 1)]
if sys.executable == a + 'pythonw.exe':
print('Running in Python IDLE')
else:
print('Running in Command line')
Update for later versions (e.g. Python 3.6 on Ubuntu 16.04): The statement to get the name has changed to psutil.Process(os.getpid()).parent().name()
I believe this CAN be done. At least, here is how I got it working in Python 2.7 under Ubuntu 14.04:
#!/usr/bin/env python
import os, psutil
# do stuff here
if psutil.Process(os.getpid()).parent.name == 'gnome-terminal':
raw_input("Press enter to close...")
Note that -- in Ubuntu 14 with the Gnome desktop (aka Nautilus) -- you might need to do this:
from a Nautilus window (the file browser), select Edit(menu)->Preferences(item) then Behavior(tab)->Executable Text Files(section)->Ask Each Time(radio).
chmod your script to be executable, or -- from a Nautilus window (the file browser) -- right click on the file->Properties(item) then Permissions(tab)->Execute:Allow executing file as program(checkbox)
double-click your file. If you select "Run in Terminal", you should see the "Type enter to close..." prompt.
now try from a bash prompt; you should NOT see the prompt.
To see how this works, you can fiddle with this (based on the answer by from #EduardoIvanec):
#!/usr/bin/env python
import os
import sys
import psutil
def parent_list(proc=None, indent=0):
if not proc:
proc = psutil.Process(os.getpid())
pid = proc.pid
name = proc.name
pad = " " * indent
s = "{0}{1:5d} {2:s}".format(pad, pid, name)
parent = proc.parent
if parent:
s += "\n" + parent_list(parent, indent+1)
return s
def invoked_from_bash_cmdline():
return psutil.Process(os.getpid()).parent.name == "bash"
def invoked_as_run_in_terminal():
return psutil.Process(os.getpid()).parent.name == "gnome-terminal"
def invoked_as_run():
return psutil.Process(os.getpid()).parent.name == "init"
if sys.stdin.isatty():
print "running interactively"
print parent_list()
if invoked_as_run_in_terminal():
raw_input("Type enter to close...")
else:
with open('output','w') as f:
f.write("running in the background!\n")
f.write("parent list:\n")
f.write(parent_list())
From the idea behind this answer, adding for Win10 compatibility (Ripped from Python 2.7 script; modify as needed):
import os, psutil
status = 1
if __name__ =="__main__":
status = MainFunc(args)
args = sys.argv
running_windowed = False
running_from = psutil.Process(os.getpid()).parent().name()
if running_from == 'explorer.exe':
args.append([DEFAULT OR DOUBLE CLICK ARGS HERE])
running_windowed = True
if running_windowed:
print('Completed. Exit status of {}'.format(status))
ready = raw_input('Press Enter To Close')
sys.exit(status)
There is a number of switch like statements you could add to be more universal or handle different defaults.
This is typically done manually/, I don't think there is an automatic way to do it that works for every case.
You should add a --pause argument to your script that does the prompt for a key at the end.
When the script is invoked from a command line by hand, then the user can add --pause if desired, but by default there won't be any wait.
When the script is launched from an icon, the arguments in the icon should include the --pause, so that there is a wait. Unfortunately you will need to either document the use of this option so that the user knows that it needs to be added when creating an icon, or else, provide an icon creation function in your script that works for your target OS.
My solution was to create command line scripts using setuptools. Here are a the relevant parts of myScript.py:
def main(pause_on_error=False):
if run():
print("we're good!")
else:
print("an error occurred!")
if pause_on_error:
raw_input("\nPress Enter to close.")
sys.exit(1)
def run():
pass # run the program here
return False # or True if program runs successfully
if __name__ == '__main__':
main(pause_on_error=True)
And the relevant parts of setup.py:
setup(
entry_points={
'console_scripts': [
'myScript = main:main',
]
},
)
Now if I open myScript.py with the Python interpreter (on Windows), the console window waits for the user to press enter if an error occurs. On the command line, if I run 'myScript', the program will never wait for user input before closing.
Although this isn't a very good solution, it does work (in windows at least).
You could create a batch file with the following contents:
#echo off
for %%x in (%cmdcmdline%) do if /i "%%~x"=="/c" set DOUBLECLICKED=1
start <location of python script>
if defined DOUBLECLICKED pause
If you want to be able to do this with a single file, you could try the following:
#echo off
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set LF=^
:: The 2 empty lines are necessary
for %%x in (%cmdcmdline%) do if /i "%%~x"=="/c" set DOUBLECLICKED=1
echo print("first line of python script") %LF% print("second and so on") > %temp%/pyscript.py
start /wait console_title pyscript.py
del %temp%/pyscript.py
if defined DOUBLECLICKED pause
Batch code from: Pausing a batch file when double-clicked but not when run from a console window?
Multi-line in batch from: DOS: Working with multi-line strings
Okay, the easiest way I found and made was to simply run the program in the command line, even if it was ran in the Python IDLE.
exist = lambda x: os.path.exists(x) ## Doesn't matter
if __name__ == '__main__':
fname = "SomeRandomFileName" ## Random default file name
if exist(fname)==False: ## exist() is a pre-defined lambda function
jot(fname) ## jot() is a function that creates a blank file
os.system('start YourProgram.py') ## << Insert your program name here
os.system('exit'); sys.exit() ## Exits current shell (Either IDLE or CMD)
os.system('color a') ## Makes it look cool! :p
main() ## Runs your code
os.system("del %s" % fname) ## Deletes file name for next time
Add this to the bottom of your script and once ran from either IDLE or Command Prompt, it will create a file, re-run the program in the CMD, and exits the first instance.
Hope that helps! :)
I also had that question and, for me, the best solution is to set an environment variable in my IDE (PyCharm) and check if that variable exists to know if the script is being executed either via the command line or via the IDE.
To set an environment variable in PyCharm check:
How to set environment variables in PyCharm?
Example code (environment variable: RUNNING_PYCHARM = True):
import os
# The script is being executed via the command line
if not("RUNNING_PYCHARM" in os.environ):
raw_input("Press enter to close.")
I hope it works for you.
Based on existing solutions and using sets:
import psutil
def running_interactively():
"""Return True if any of our parent processes is a known shell."""
shells = {"cmd.exe", "bash.exe", "powershell.exe", "WindowsTerminal.exe"}
parent_names = {parent.name() for parent in psutil.Process().parents()}
# print(parent_names)
# print(f"Shell in parents? {shells & parent_names}")
return bool(shells & parent_names)
if not running_interactively():
input("\nPress ENTER to continue.")
This answer is currently specific to Windows, but it can be reconfigured to work with other operating systems in theory. Rather than installing psutil module like most of these answers recommend, you can make use of the subprocess module and the Windows tasklist command to explicitly get the name of the parent process of your Python program.
import os
import subprocess
shells = {"bash.exe", "cmd.exe", "powershell.exe", "WindowsTerminal.exe"}
# These are standard examples, but it can also be used to detect:
# - Nested python.exe processes (IDLE, etc.)
# - IDEs used to develop your program (IPython, Eclipse, PyCharm, etc.)
# - Other operating system dependent shells
s = subprocess.check_output(["tasklist", "/v", "/fo", "csv", "/nh", "/fi", f"PID eq {os.getppid()}"])
# Execute tasklist command to get the verbose info without the header (/nh) of a single process in CSV format (/fo csv)
# Such that its PID is equal to os.getppid()
entry = s.decode("utf-8").strip().strip('"').split('","')
# Decode from bytes to str, remove end whitespace and quotations from CSV format
# And split along the quote delimited commas
# This process may differ and require adjustment when used for an OS other than Windows
condition = entry and entry[0] in shells
# Check first that entry is not an empty sequence, meaning the process has already ended
# If it still exists, check if the first element -- the executable -- exists as an element of the set of executables you're looking for
I hope this is helpful for anyone looking for an answer to this problem while minimizing the number of dependencies you'd need.
This was tested in Python 3.8 and uses an f-string in the subprocess.check_output line of the code, so please be sure to convert the f-string to a compatible syntax if you're working with a version of Python before f-strings were introduced.