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We've been using python to automate some git work for quite some time in my group, and everything has worked fine. Unfortunately, I've come across something I would like to use, but doesn't work when put into a python subprocess. Here's the command:

git describe --tags `git rev-list --tags --max-count=1`

When I use it in my git bash (we're using Windows) it works fine, but when I put it in a python subprocess, it complains that git rev-list --tags --max-count=1 is not a valid command. I was wondering if anyone could enlighten me as to why, and preferably, a way of using it. I got the line from this question:

How to get the latest tag name in current branch in Git?

I'm trying to get the LATEST tag on a branch, that is closest to the current HEAD. I've got a hacky workaround right now that lists all of the tags and then sorts them numerically, but that's only working because we haven't put out any non-numeric tags, which won't necessarily be the case always.

Can anyone please help me?

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user2616890
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1 Answers1

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The Popen constructor by default doesn't use a shell to parse the command you're giving it. This means that shell metacharacters like the backquote and such things will not work. You can either pass shell = True or first run git rev-list --tags --max-count=1 and then create the whole command after that.

Noufal Ibrahim
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