Make Python Subprocess Run in PowerShell

Question

I'm trying to get the wireless debugging port of ADB in my Android, using the command here:

& "D:\Tools\Nmap\nmap.exe" -T4 192.168.2.20 -p 37000-44000 | Where-Object {$_ -match "tcp open"} | ForEach-Object {$_.split("/")[0]}

And I would like to make a Python script for further purposes:

ip = '192.168.2.20'
nmap_path = r'D:\Tools\Nmap\nmap.exe'


def get_port():
    port_result = subprocess.run(
        f'& "{nmap_path}" -T4 {ip} -p 37000-44000 | '
        f'Where-Object {{$_ -match "tcp open"}} | '
        f'ForEach-Object {{$_.split("/")[0]}}',
        shell=True
    )
    port = port_result.stdout.decode('utf-8').strip()
    return port

But it gave the following error: & was unexpected at this time., which indicated that the command was run in CMD instead of PowerShell.

I do not want to use powershell -Command, nor saving the commands into a .ps1 file.

Could I make subprocess.run to run specifically in PowerShell?

Mark Setchell · Accepted Answer · 2022-07-22T22:36:34.803

The documentation says subprocess() uses COMSPEC to determine which shell to run if you set shell=True.

I don't have, want, or use Windows, but imagine you'd need something like:

import os
import subprocess

# Change COMSPEC to point to Powershell
os.putenv('COMSPEC',r'C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe')

subprocess.run(..., shell=True)

I'm assuming you can check that path.

I guess it would probably be good practice to save and restore the previous COMSPEC in case the change to Powershell upsets something else. So:

# Save original COMSPEC
savedCOMSPEC = os.getenv('COMSPEC')

... CODE FROM ABOVE ...

# Restore previous COMSPEC
os.putenv('COMSPEC', savedCOMSPEC)

`os.putenv(k, v)` does not work on Windows (at least here), `os.environ[k] = v` does. — KumaTea, Apr 09 '23 at 15:16

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 23 '22 at 00:55

Option 1:

You could go about this by pip-installing nmap in powershell by running powershell as administrator and running:

pip install nmap
pip install python-nmap

Then, head back to your python script, call powershell using subprocess.call followed by your path to powershell.exe, then the desired command to execute:

import subprocess
from subprocess import call

subprocess.call(f'C:\Windows\System32\powershell.exe nmap -T4 -p 37000-44000', shell=True)

OR

Option 2:

You could just import nmap as a package into your python script, still making sure that you pip-installed nmap AND python-nmap.

import nmap
scan = nmap.PortScanner()

scan.scan({ip}, '37000-44000')

I found a detailed article explaining how to do the latter method. (Importing nmap directly into your script as a package, that is.)

Best of luck and happy coding! ;)

Make Python Subprocess Run in PowerShell

2 Answers2