Run shell script from python

Question

I am trying to run a shell script from a python script using the following:

from subprocess import call
call(['bash run.sh'])

This gives me an error, but I can successfully run other commands like:

call(['ls'])

possible duplicate of [Calling an external command in Python](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/89228/calling-an-external-command-in-python) — kenorb, Aug 18 '15 at 23:24

score 12 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 18 '15 at 23:22

12

You should separate arguments:

call(['bash', 'run.sh'])
call(['ls','-l'])

answered Aug 18 '15 at 23:22

Assem

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Is there a way to run .sh scripts in Python on Windows? – Royi Aug 27 '16 at 18:28

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 18 '15 at 23:20

from subprocess import call
import shlex
call(shlex.split('bash run.sh'))

You want to properly tokenize your command arguments. shlex.split() will do that for you.

Source: https://docs.python.org/2/library/subprocess.html#popen-constructor

Note shlex.split() can be useful when determining the correct tokenization for args, especially in complex cases:

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 18 '15 at 23:26

When you call call() with a list, it expects every element of that list to correspond to a command line argument. In this case it is looking for bash run.sh as the executable with spaces and everything as a single string.

Try one of these:

call("bash run.sh".split())
call(["bash", "run.sh"])

Run shell script from python

3 Answers3