cannot open files in beyond compare using python

Question

I am making use of Beyond Compare 3 to see the difference between two XML files. I am willing to make a small python script which on executing will open files ready to compare in Beyond Compare tool.

So far I tried invoking BC3 from command line syntax as below and it works:

BCompare.exe "c:\Ref-2.xml"  "c:\Cop-2.xml"

but when I try to execute same syntax from python script as shown below, It throws error

from subprocess import check_output
check_output('BCompare.exe "c:\Ref-2.xml"  "c:\Cop-2.xml"', shell=True)

The error which is shown is:

raise CalledProcessError(retcode, cmd, output=output)
subprocess.CalledProcessError: Command 'BCompare.exe "c:\Ref-2.xml"  "c:\Cop-2.xml"' returned non-zero exit status 1

am I missing something? I tried different solutions to open command line instructions using this tutorial and many others but its not working.

BigBang · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-20T09:05:30.117

1

Do something like this. Give Absolute path of .exe

check_output(absolute_path_of_beyond_compare "c:\Ref-2.xml"  "c:\Cop-2.xml"', shell=True)

I am able to open the Beyond Compare using following code:

from subprocess import check_output

check_output("BCompare.exe Test1.txt Test2.txt", shell=True)

where BCompare.exe path is added in path variable and Test1.txt Test2.txt are present in the same directory from where i have executed the program.

edited Oct 20 '15 at 09:05

answered Oct 16 '15 at 14:09

BigBang

149
12

Nope, unfortunately it produces same error. I gave absolute path of `BCompare.exe` – Radheya Oct 16 '15 at 14:18
however, with `subprocess.call('"C:\Users\BHD4ABT\Desktop\Beyond Compare 3\BCompare.exe')` i am able to open beyond compare tool but cannot add files to compare – Radheya Oct 16 '15 at 14:20
I modified above answer. Check That please. – BigBang Oct 19 '15 at 10:34

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 21 '20 at 20:29

1

import subprocess
subprocess.Popen([r"C:\Program Files\Beyond Compare 4\BCompare.exe", r"FullFilePath_File1", r"FullFilePath_File2"])

I tested on mine, and it works. Instead of checkout, I am using Popen. I am using Jupyter notebook by installing Anaconda3-5.2.0-Windows-x86_64

Python version = 3.6.5

edited Aug 21 '20 at 20:29

S Raghav

1,386
1
16
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answered Aug 21 '20 at 16:00

AL TI

11
1

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 12 '17 at 06:08

use exact path where the beyond compare is installed or add that to your environment variable "Path". in case using exact path of installation put something line "\"C:\Program Files\Beyond Compare 4\BCompare.exe\" test1.txt test2.txt" the \" enables to read the special characters and extra spaces in path

cannot open files in beyond compare using python

3 Answers3