run python script directly from command line - python

#!/usr/bin/env python
I put that at the top of a script. I've seen that should make the script runnable from the command line without the need for python programname.py. Unless I'm misunderstanding I should be able to use programname.py as long as I have the above line at the top of the script. Is this correct?
It isn't working for me I just get an error indicating that I would have to use python at the beginning of the 'call'.

Universal running of Python scripts
You can pretty much universally run without the shebang (#!) with
python myscript.py
Or nearly equivalently (it places the current directory on your path and executes the module named myscript) (preferably do this!):
python -m myscript
from the command line, as long as you have Python installed and on your path environment variable (i.e. set to run with python, which, if installed, would typically be the case).
Shebangs (#!) are a Unix thing.
The shebang, as you're using it, is typically for running on a Unix platform (typically Apple or Linux). Windows would typically require cygwin to use the shebang.
You can usually default to whatever python is available on your system path with:
#!/usr/bin/env python
Assuming you're on a Unix, you might try other locations for your python setup, like:
#!/usr/bin/python
Muddling through
You can see what python you're currently using by using the unix which command, so if you want to see where your python is coming from, use this command:
which python
or on Windows (cygwin probably can run the shebang):
where python
On Linux/Unix, you'll need execution perms to run the file as well, in that manner. Use chmod
chmod +x myscript.py
(chmod also may apply to Cygwin in Windows)
If you're not running as root, you may require sudo, and that would be
sudo chmod +x myscript.py
And then attempt to run (within the same directory) with
./myscript.py

make the file executable
sudo chmod +x /path/to/file.py
and then from the same directory as file.py:
./file.py

Related

How to make the equivallent of .bat for mac and how to install python libraries on mac

I have this file.py:
import os
os.system("pip install pip")
os.system("pip install selenium")
How do I make it work for MAC and what is te equivallent of a .bat file in MAC to execute the file.py.
Your file.py script will generally work fine on Mac as long as the environment the script is running in is set up right. Most notably, the pip executable has to be findable via the current PATH variable. You might benefit by looking at the subprocess module, which is an alternative API for running external commands. It is a more robust mechanism for doing so.
The equivalent of a .BAT file is a shell script. You have a choice as to which shell to use to run the script. I think the most common source is the Bash shell. It is often the case that you use whatever shell is running at your command prompt. This functionality is generally much more general and flexible than a .BAT file is on Window. See this link for a discussion of many of the issues:
https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/OpenSource/Conceptual/ShellScripting/shell_scripts/shell_scripts.html
A shell script can just be one or more commands that you might run in your Terminal. For example, to run test.py at a Terminal prompt, you'd do this:
> python test.py
The simplest equivalent in a shell script would be the same thing:
python test.py
A script that looks like this is run by whatever shell executes the shell script. What is more usually done is that a "shebang" line is added to the top of the shell script to explicitly define which shell will be used to run the script. So what the single line script above should really look like is this:
#!/bin/sh
python test.py
This may be starting to make your head spin. I would suggest reviewing the link I gave above, and possibly reviewing some other materials that explain shell scripts. Note that nothing about shell scripts is unique to the Mac. The concept is exactly the same on Linux, Unix, etc.
BTW, do you really want pip install pip? What does that do? Doesn't the pip package have to already be installed if the pip command is working?

python virtual environment .exe file usage

What is the difference between running a script by first sourcing:
source /venv/bin/activate
python script.py
and running the script with the actual python exe?
/venv/bin/python script.py
do these two commands always do the same thing? The problem that I am seeing is that if script.py calls other python scripts, and the settings and packages that are in venv don't work.
It depends on how does script.py runs other scripts. If it uses sys.executable, that is the current python, /venv/bin/python then both commands are equivalent.
If script.py runs other scripts using shell (os.system, subprocess, etc) then the first one is the preferred form because it sets $PATH for all subprocesses so that all python scripts use the same virtual environment.
And the final note. If some script(s) being run from script.py have fixed shebang like #!/usr/bin/python those scripts will not be run in your virtual environment regardless of the 1st or 2nd way you run script.py.

How to create a .desktop file to launch a python script on linux?

I created a python script ExeMain.py that use virtualenv for dependence. So to launch this script using .desktop I made this command
Exec=sh -c 'source ~/PycharmProjects/ProBlog/venv/bin/activate; python ~/PycharmProjects/ProBlog/ExeMain.py;'
Which resulted with this error "sh: 1: source: not found" and followed by "ImportError"
Without the source command in .desktop file with all necessary modules installed in direct python environment it works fine (in other Linux machine). As it seams not to be a good practice i tried using venv. And as of the errors i could see than the import error is because source command is not executed.
When i launch the .desktop file it should execute the ExeMain.py file.
Standard versions of sh does not have the source command. Perhaps use /bin/bash instead? So it'd be written something along the lines of this:
Exec=/bin/bash -c 'source /home/username/PycharmProjects/ProBlog/venv/bin/activate && /home/username/PycharmProjects/ProBlog/venv/bin/python /home/username/PycharmProjects/ProBlog/ExeMain.py'
I also suggest three other changes: 1) the && operator so that it won't try to run python code until the activate is finished, 2) replace the ~ tilde with the full path in case the desktop environment doesn't properly expand it, and 3) put in the full path to the venv python so that it doesn't default to the system python. Some of these may not be necessary (depending on the system setup), but it doesn't hurt to be careful.

how to make my epd python as my default python in ubuntu?

I recently installed epd python distribution in ubuntu. This got installed in the folder /home/jai/Downloads/epd_free-7.3-2-rh5-x86_64
Can you tell me how to make this python as my default python?
I get errors while running a test program (it seems my default python is different and it doesn't have numpy library, other libraries that come along epd python distribution.)
My test program is here: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/~fangohr/computing/download/python/tests/testall.py
The "default" python depends on how you're invoking it.
On Ubuntu, python is normally installed as /usr/bin/python (not /bin/python) -- which may be a symbolic link.
If you invoke the python command, e.g.:
$ python myscript.py
it will use whichever python executable is in a directory that appears first in your $PATH. You can modify your $PATH, either for your current shell:
export PATH="/some/dir:$PATH"
or for all future shells by updating your $HOME/.bashrc, $HOME/.bash_profile, or whatever. /usr/local/bin is one common place to put system-specific executables, or $HOME/bin for user-specific executables.
If you want to execute the script itself, you'll need a shebang as the first line of the script:
$ head -1 myscript.py
#!/usr/bin/python
$ ./myscript.py
...
You can edit the shebang to refer to whatever Python executable you want to use.
You can replace /usr/bin/python with your preferred Python executable, but that might cause unwanted side effects; existing Python scripts that assume /usr/bin/python is the default might break.
Another option is to change the shebang to:
#!/usr/bin/env python
which lets you execute the script directly while still using whichever python is first in your $PATH. This may or may not be a good idea; see my answer to this question for further discussion.
Default python is the one found in /usr/bin directory with the name python. Making a symbolic link of :
ln -s /home/jai/Downloads/epd_free-7.3-2-rh5-x86_64 /usr/bin/python
Assuming that is the name of the python executable, not the installer. After you installed, use the path where you installed it. f.e /home/iai/myNewPythonInstallation
might do the trick.
Most likely default 2.7 python is occupying that name, so you need to remove that, or use another name like epdPython. Then running python scripts would happen with:
epdPython myscript.py

How do I get linux to automatically run my python script in the Python interpreter?

I've decided that it would be good for me to move outside of my .NET bubble and start experimenting with other technologies. I have Ubuntu12 running and python2.7 and 3.2 are installed. I can run code directly in the interpreters.
I have a basic script on the filesystem called Standalone.py:
#!/usr/bin/env python3.2
import sys
print("this is a standalone script.")
When I'm at my bash prompt I type $ python3.2 Standalone.py. I get a response saying this is a standalone script. But when I type $ Standalone.py then it tells me that the command is not found.
How do I run such scripts?
Thanks for any help.
update
I changed the permissions of Standalone.py to 755. Then I ran the command:
$ ./Standalone.py
and received the message:
: No such file or directory
I then switched the permissions of Standalone.py back to 644. Then when I ran
$ ./Standalone.py
I received the message
-bash: ./Standalone.py: Permission denied
Is there something I'm missing?
You need to make the script executable using
chmod +x Standalone.py
Usually, the current directory is not searched for executable files, so you need to use
./Standalone.py
to tell the shell that the script is in the current directory.
Make sure your script file has linux newline (just \n) not windows newline (\r\n). Did you write the script on windows? This happened to me once. You should check your editor settings.
Your script should start with #!/usr/bin/python not #!/usr/bin/env python3.2
Make sure you're in the folder where your script is located you can check with ls
chmod +x Standalone.py
./Standalone.py
At first, to excecute a script it need to be executable. So you either have to do a chmod +x $file or a chmod 0740 $file. When you set the file permission to 644 you are putting the execute right away, so if gives you an error. If you are unsure of execution right and octal notation, you can use this : http://permissions-calculator.org/decode/0644/.
To really answer your question then, if you want to call the script with $file.py it needs to be in your PATH variable. You can display it with echo $PATH. Those are the directories that are searched for script to execute. So you simply need to give your script the executable right and put it in one of the directory given by your PATH.
Can you check if /usr/bin/python or /usr/bin/python3.2 exists
Execute below comamnd:
which python3.2
and then use the resulting path on top of you script.

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