Run function from the command line and pass arguments to function - python

I'm using similar approach to call python function from my shell script:
python -c 'import foo; print foo.hello()'
But I don't know how in this case I can pass arguments to python script and also is it possible to call function with parameters from command line?

python -c 'import foo, sys; print foo.hello(); print(sys.argv[1])' "This is a test"
or
echo "Wham" | python -c 'print(raw_input(""));'
There's also argparse (py3 link) that could be used to capture arguments, such as the -c which also can be found at sys.argv[0].
A second library do exist but is discuraged, called getopt.getopt.

You don't want to do that in shell script.
Try this. Create a file named "hello.py" and put the following code in the file (assuming you are on unix system):
#!/usr/bin/env python
print "Hello World"
and in your shell script, write something lke this
#!/bin/sh
python hello.py
and you should see Hello World in the terminal.
That's how you should invoke a script in shell/bash.
To the main question: how do you pass arguments?
Take this simple example:
#!/usr/bin/env python
import sys
def hello(name):
print "Hello, " + name
if __name__ == "__main__":
if len(sys.argv) > 1:
hello(sys.argv[1])
else:
raise SystemExit("usage: python hello.py <name>")
We expect the len of the argument to be at least two. Like shell programming, the first one (index 0) is always the file name.
Now modify the shell script to include the second argument (name) and see what happen.
haven't tested my code yet but conceptually that's how you should go about
edit:
If you just have a line or two simple python code, sure, -c works fine and is neat. But if you need more complex logic, please put the code into a module (.py file).

You need to create one .py file.
And after you call it this way :
python file.py argv1 argv2
And after in your file, you have sys.argv list, who give you list of argvs.

Related

Using sys.argv to pass command line arguments to a python script

I know this question has been asked in various variations but none of them seem to work for my specific case:
(btw all mentioned files are in my PATH)
I have a simple python script called test.py:
import sys
print('Hello world!')
print(sys.argv)
counter = 0
while True:
counter +=1
The counter is just there to keep the command window open so don't worry about that.
When I enter
test.py test test
into cmd I get the following output:
Hello world!
['C:\\Users\\path\\to\\test.py']
For some reason unknown to me the two other commands (sys.argv[1] and sys.argv[2]) are missing.
However when I create a .bat file like this:
#C:\Users\path\to\python.exe C:\Users\path\to\test.py %*
and call it in cmd
test.bat test test
I get my desired output:
Hello world!
['C:\\Users\\path\\to\\test.py', 'test', 'test']
I've read that the
%*
in the .bat file means that all command line arguments are passed to the python script but why are exactly these arguments not passed to the python script when I explicitly call it in cmd?
From what I've read all command line arguments entered after the script name should be passed to said script but for some reason it doesn't work that way.
What am I overlooking here?
I'm guessing that you need to actually run the script through the command line with C:\Users\path\to\python.exe test.py test test.
I'm not sure how Windows handles just test.py test test but from my limited experience it is probably just trying to open all 3 of those files. Since the first one (test.py) has a .py extension, it is opened with the Python Interpreter and is run automatically. The other two are not actually being passed in as an argument.

Import bash variables from a python script

I have seen plenty examples of running a python script from inside a bash script and either passing in variables as arguments or using export to give the child shell access, I am trying to do the opposite here though.
I am running a python script and have a separate file, lets call it myGlobalVariables.bash
myGlobalVariables.bash:
foo_1="var1"
foo_2="var2"
foo_3="var3"
My python script needs to use these variables.
For a very simple example:
myPythonScript.py:
print "foo_1: {}".format(foo_1)
Is there a way I can import them directly? Also, I do not want to alter the bash script if possible since it is a common file referenced many times elsewhere.
If your .bash file is formatted as you indicated - you might be able to just import it direct as a Python module via the imp module.
import imp
bash_module = imp.load_source("bash_module, "/path/to/myGlobalVariables.bash")
print bash_module.foo_1
You can also use os.environ:
Bash:
#!/bin/bash
# works without export as well
export testtest=one
Python:
#!/usr/bin/python
import os
os.environ['testtest'] # 'one'
I am very new to python, so I would welcome suggestions for more idiomatic ways to do this, but the following code uses bash itself to tell us which values get set by first calling bash with an empty environment (env -i bash) to tell us what variables are set as a baseline, then I call it again and tell bash to source your "variables" file, and then tell us what variables are now set. After removing some false-positives and an apparently-blank line, I loop through the "additional" output, looking for variables that were not in the baseline. Newly-seen variables get split (carefully) and put into the bash dictionary. I've left here (but commented-out) my previous idea for using exec to set the variables natively in python, but I ran into quoting/escaping issues, so I switched gears to using a dict.
If the exact call (path, etc) to your "variables" file is different than mine, then you'll need to change all of the instances of that value -- in the subprocess.check_output() call, in the list.remove() calls.
Here's the sample variable file I was using, just to demonstrate some of the things that could happen:
foo_1="var1"
foo_2="var2"
foo_3="var3"
if [[ -z $foo_3 ]]; then
foo_4="test"
else
foo_4="testing"
fi
foo_5="O'Neil"
foo_6='I love" quotes'
foo_7="embedded
newline"
... and here's the python script:
#!/usr/bin/env python
import subprocess
output = subprocess.check_output(['env', '-i', 'bash', '-c', 'set'])
baseline = output.split("\n")
output = subprocess.check_output(['env', '-i', 'bash', '-c', '. myGlobalVariables.bash; set'])
additional = output.split("\n")
# these get set when ". myGlobal..." runs and so are false positives
additional.remove("BASH_EXECUTION_STRING='. myGlobalVariables.bash; set'")
additional.remove('PIPESTATUS=([0]="0")')
additional.remove('_=myGlobalVariables.bash')
# I get an empty item at the end (blank line from subprocess?)
additional.remove('')
bash = {}
for assign in additional:
if not assign in baseline:
name, value = assign.split("=", 1)
bash[name]=value
#exec(name + '="' + value + '"')
print "New values:"
for key in bash:
print "Key: ", key, " = ", bash[key]
Another way to do it:
Inspired by Marat's answer, I came up with this two-stage hack. Start with a python program, let's call it "stage 1", which uses subprocess to call bash to source the variable file, as my above answer does, but it then tells bash to export all of the variables, and then exec the rest of your python program, which is in "stage 2".
Stage 1 python program:
#!/usr/bin/env python
import subprocess
status = subprocess.call(
['bash', '-c',
'. myGlobalVariables.bash; export $(compgen -v); exec ./stage2.py'
]);
Stage 2 python program:
#!/usr/bin/env python
# anything you want! for example,
import os
for key in os.environ:
print key, " = ", os.environ[key]
As stated in #theorifice answer, the trick here may be that such formatted file may be interpreted by both as bash and as python code. But his answer is outdated. imp module is deprecated in favour of importlib.
As your file has extension other than ".py", you can use the following approach:
from importlib.util import spec_from_loader, module_from_spec
from importlib.machinery import SourceFileLoader
spec = spec_from_loader("foobar", SourceFileLoader("foobar", "myGlobalVariables.bash"))
foobar = module_from_spec(spec)
spec.loader.exec_module(foobar)
I do not completely understand how this code works (where there are these foobar parameters), however, it worked for me. Found it here.

Access previous bash command in python

I would like to be able to log the command used to run the current python script within the script itself. For instance this is something I tried:
#test.py
import sys,subprocess
with open('~/.bash_history','r') as f:
for line in f.readlines():
continue
with open('logfile','r') as f:
f.write('the command you ran: %s'%line.strip('\n'))
However the .bash_history does not seem to be ordered in chronological order. What's the best recommended way to achieve the above for easy logging? Thanks.
Update: unfortunately sys.argv doesn't quite solve my problem because I need to use process subtitution as input variables sometimes.
e.g. python test.py <( cat file | head -3)
What you want to do is not universally possible. As devnull says, the history file in bash is not written for every command typed. In some cases it's not written at all (user sets HISTFILESIZE=0, or uses a different shell).
The command as typed is parsed and processed long before your python script is invoked. Your question is therefore not related to python at all. Wether what you want to do is possible or not is entirely up to the invoking shell. bash does not provide what you want.
If your can control the caller's shell, you could try using zsh instead. There, if you setopt INC_APPEND_HISTORY, zsh will append to its history file for each command typed, so you can do the parse history file hack.
One option is to use sys.argv. It will contain a list of arguments you passed to the script.
import sys
print 'Number of arguments:', len(sys.argv), 'arguments.'
print 'Argument List:', str(sys.argv)
Example output:
>python test.py
Number of arguments: 1 arguments.
Argument List: ['test.py']
>python test.py -l ten
Number of arguments: 3 arguments.
Argument List: ['test.py', '-l', 'ten']
As you can see, the sys.argv variable contains the name of the script and then each individual parameter passed. It does miss the python portion of the command, though.

Call Python script from bash with argument

I know that I can run a python script from my bash script using the following:
python python_script.py
But what about if I wanted to pass a variable / argument to my python script from my bash script. How can I do that?
Basically bash will work out a filename and then python will upload it, but I need to send the filename from bash to python when I call it.
To execute a python script in a bash script you need to call the same command that you would within a terminal. For instance
> python python_script.py var1 var2
To access these variables within python you will need
import sys
print(sys.argv[0]) # prints python_script.py
print(sys.argv[1]) # prints var1
print(sys.argv[2]) # prints var2
Beside sys.argv, also take a look at the argparse module, which helps define options and arguments for scripts.
The argparse module makes it easy to write user-friendly command-line interfaces.
Use
python python_script.py filename
and in your Python script
import sys
print sys.argv[1]
Embedded option:
Wrap python code in a bash function.
#!/bin/bash
function current_datetime {
python - <<END
import datetime
print datetime.datetime.now()
END
}
# Call it
current_datetime
# Call it and capture the output
DT=$(current_datetime)
echo Current date and time: $DT
Use environment variables, to pass data into to your embedded python script.
#!/bin/bash
function line {
PYTHON_ARG="$1" python - <<END
import os
line_len = int(os.environ['PYTHON_ARG'])
print '-' * line_len
END
}
# Do it one way
line 80
# Do it another way
echo $(line 80)
http://bhfsteve.blogspot.se/2014/07/embedding-python-in-bash-scripts.html
use in the script:
echo $(python python_script.py arg1 arg2) > /dev/null
or
python python_script.py "string arg" > /dev/null
The script will be executed without output.
I have a bash script that calls a small python routine to display a message window. As I need to use killall to stop the python script I can't use the above method as it would then mean running killall python which could take out other python programmes so I use
pythonprog.py "$argument" & # The & returns control straight to the bash script so must be outside the backticks. The preview of this message is showing it without "`" either side of the command for some reason.
As long as the python script will run from the cli by name rather than python pythonprog.py this works within the script. If you need more than one argument just use a space between each one within the quotes.
and take a look at the getopt module.
It works quite good for me!
Print all args without the filename:
for i in range(1, len(sys.argv)):
print(sys.argv[i])

what is a commandline argument?

I am a newcomer to python (also very sorry if this is a newb question but) i have no idea what a command line argument is. when sys.argv is called, what exactly are the arguments? Any help with understanding this would be a great service.
Try running this program:
import sys
print(sys.argv)
You should see results similar to this:
% test.py
['/home/unutbu/pybin/test.py']
% test.py foo
['/home/unutbu/pybin/test.py', 'foo']
% test.py foo bar
['/home/unutbu/pybin/test.py', 'foo', 'bar']
% python test.py foo
['test.py', 'foo']
So, you see sys.argv is a list. The first item is the path to (or filename of) the script being run, followed by command-line arguments.
Given the command myscript.py arg1 arg2 arg3, the arguments are arg1, arg2 and arg3. sys.argv will also include the script name (i.e. myscript.py) in the first position.
Command line arguments are not specific to python.
Command line arguments are parameters you type after the script name. Eg. if you type: python test.py arg1, the first argument is arg1.
For examples, take a look at jhu.edu.
The command line arguments are the strings you type after a command in the command line, for instance:
python --help
Here --help is the argument for the python command, that shows a help page with the valid command line arguments for the python command.
In a python program, you have access to the arguments in sys.argv, so let's say you started a python script like this:
python myscript.py -x -y
When myscript.py starts, sys.argv[1] will have as value the string '-x' and sys.argv[2] will have as value the string '-y'. What you do with those arguments is up to you, and there are modules to help you easily define command line arguments, for instance argparse.
The arguments are usually used as a way of telling the program what it should do when it is run.
If I had a program named writefile.py, and I wanted the user to tell it which file to write, then I would run it with python writefile.py targetfile.txt. My sample writefile.py:
import sys
file = open(sys.argv[1], 'w') # sys.argv[0] = 'writefile.py' (unutbu's answer)
file.write('ABCDE')
file.close
After running this, I'll have a file named targetfile.txt with the contents "ABCDE". If I ran it with python writefile.py abcde.txt, I'd have abcde.txt with the contents "ABCDE".

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