Develop Reference

Subprocess to open python file and return data

I am trying to use Python to open another file. This file is going to start up a socket and create threads for listening for additional connections, and threads for sending/receiving data. The main thread will not return.
However, if the setup of sockets fail, I want to return a error code to the other python script that executed the subprocess.
main.py
py3output = subprocess.check_output(['python3', 'py3.py'])
print('py3 said:' + str(py3output))
py3.py
def returnme():
return 10
returnme()
When I run this, it prints:
py3 said:b''
I am just trying to figure out how to get the return value back to the main calling program.

To return an exit code n back to the OS, you need sys.exit(n). But seems like you do not want to check the exit code but the stdout otput. So your program might need to rewrite to:
def returnme():
return 10
print(returnme())

You should only return a string as a standard output using following code:
sample.py
import sys
def returnme():
sys.stdout.write(str(10))
sys.stdout.flush()
returnme()
main.py
from subprocess import check_output
output = check_output(['python','sample.py'])
print('Sample.py says :' + output)

python - Using a variable as part of a class method/function

I'm sure this is a simple problem, but I'm an amateur so here i am.
Trying to use the obd python library to communicate with my vehicle. I have a bluetooth OBDII adapter and on it's own i can send single commands as outlined in the basic usage section of the readme and get responses.
My problem is that i have a list of commands that i want to send. I'm trying to use a for loop to go through each command and print the responses on screen.
import os
import time
import obd
def clear_Screen():
os.system('cls' if os.name == 'nt' else 'clear')
connection = obd.OBD("COM7")
pids = [ 'RPM' , 'ENGINE_LOAD' , 'COOLANT_TEMP' , 'RUN_TIME' ]
try:
while True:
time.sleep(1)
clear_Screen()
for i in pids:
cmd = "obd.commands." + i
response = connection.query(cmd)
print i , ": " , (response.value)
except KeyboardInterrupt:
exit()
there's a problem with how I'm building the cmd variable because the response i get from each query is that the command isn't supported but i know they are.
if i print cmd instead of trying to use the command.query(cmd) it prints exactly like it would be if i specified it i.e. obd.commands.RPM so I don't understand why this doesn't work.

In your question you stated:
there's a problem with how I'm building the cmd variable
Indeed, in your way, cmd is only a string. So instead if you want the actual evaluated attitude, you should use getattr instead:
cmd = getattr(obd.commands,i)
eval() and exec() are both unsafe so you should never use those.

Try wrapping what you're assigning to cmd in eval():
cmd = eval("obd.commands." + i)

reading output from pexpect sendline

I have pexpect working, but I am having problems printing the output back from it. In my test script below, it creates the ssh connection, and then sends a sudo su -, then my password, and then sends a line that would require sudo access to do (I have also added p.interact() a few times to make sure it is at root). The problem I am having, is with returning the output of the commands I run. In the end I am wanting to run some top commands, and some du -h, and other(much more complex) space commands. But currently when it tries to print p.before, I get:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "./ssh.py", line 37, in <module>
print p.before()
TypeError: 'str' object is not callable
Here is the script I am working from(edited to remove my pass and such)
#!/usr/bin/env python
import pexpect
import struct, fcntl, os, sys, signal
def sigwinch_passthrough (sig, data):
# Check for buggy platforms (see pexpect.setwinsize()).
if 'TIOCGWINSZ' in dir(termios):
TIOCGWINSZ = termios.TIOCGWINSZ
else:
TIOCGWINSZ = 1074295912 # assume
s = struct.pack ("HHHH", 0, 0, 0, 0)
a = struct.unpack ('HHHH', fcntl.ioctl(sys.stdout.fileno(), TIOCGWINSZ , s))
global global_pexpect_instance
global_pexpect_instance.setwinsize(a[0],a[1])
ssh_newkey = 'Are you sure you want to continue connecting'
p=pexpect.spawn('ssh user#localhost')
i=p.expect([ssh_newkey,'password:',pexpect.EOF,pexpect.TIMEOUT],1)
if i==0:
print "I say yes"
p.sendline('yes')
i=p.expect([ssh_newkey,'password:',pexpect.EOF])
if i==1:
print "I give password",
p.sendline("mypassword")
elif i==2:
print "I either got key or connection timeout"
pass
elif i==3: #timeout
pass
global global_pexpect_instance
global_pexpect_instance = p
p.sendline("sudo su -")
p.sendline("mypasswd")
p.sendline("mkdir /home/user/test")
print p.before
I am working off of this link: http://linux.byexamples.com/archives/346/python-how-to-access-ssh-with-pexpect/
Any help is much appreciated.
EDIT: As Armin Rigo pointed out below. I was calling to p.before as a function like p.before(). Stupid mistake on my part, as this explains why I was getting this error today, and not yesterday when I was trying this. After making that change to my script, and modifying the command being sent, print p.before, and no output is returned. Any other ways to return output from a sendline() command?

Use logfile, that logfile is store all output in terminal.use that example code:-
child = pexpect.spawn("ssh user#localhost")
child.logfile = open("/tmp/mylog", "w")
child.expect(".*assword:")
child.send("guest\r")
child.expect(".*\$ ")
child.sendline("python -V\r")
open the log file and see everything in terminals event

To fetch the complete output after sendline use child.read()
e.g.
cmd_resp = pexpect.spawnu(cmd) # for execution of the command
str_to_search = 'Please Enter The Password'
cmd_resp.sendline('yes') # for sending the input 'yes'
resp = cmd_resp.expect([str_to_search, 'password:', EOF], timeout=30) # fetch the output status
if resp == 1:
cmd_resp.sendline(password)
resp = cmd_resp.expect([str_to_search, 'outputString:', EOF], timeout=30)
print(cmd_resp.read()) # to fetch the complete output log

p.before is a string - not a function. To see the output you have to write
print p.before.
Hope this might help you

Python / Pexpect before output out of sync

I'm using Python/Pexpect to spawn an SSH session to multiple routers. The code will work for one router but then the output of session.before will get out of sync with some routers so that it will return the output from a previous sendline. This seems particularly the case when sending a blank line (sendline()). Anyone got any ideas? Any insight would be really appreciated.
Below is a sample of what I'm seeing:
ssh_session.sendline('sh version')
while (iresult==2):
iresult = ssh_session.expect(['>','#','--More--'],timeout=SESSION_TIMEOUT)
debug_print("execute_1 " + str(iresult))
debug_print("execute_bef " + ssh_session.before)
debug_print("execute_af " + ssh_session.after)
thisoutput = ssh_session.before
output += thisoutput
if(iresult==2):
debug_print("exec MORE")
ssh_session.send(" ")
else:
debug_print("exec: end loop")
for cmd in config_commands:
debug_print("------------------------------------------------\n")
debug_print ("running command " + cmd.strip() + "\n")
iresult=2
ssh_session.sendline(cmd.strip())
while (iresult==2):
iresult = ssh_session.expect([prompt+">",prompt+"#"," --More-- "],timeout=SESSION_TIMEOUT)
thisoutput = ssh_session.before
debug_print("execute_1 " + str(iresult))
debug_print("execute_af " + ssh_session.after)
debug_print("execute_bef " + thisoutput)
thisoutput = ssh_session.before
output += thisoutput
if(iresult==2):
debug_print("exec MORE")
ssh_session.send(" ")
else:
debug_print("exec: end loop")
I get this:
logged in
exec: sh version
execute_1 1
execute_bef
R9
execute_af #
exec: end loop
------------------------------------------------
running command config t
execute_1 1
execute_af #
execute_bef sh version
Cisco IOS Software, 1841 Software (C1841-IPBASEK9-M), Version 15.1(4)M4, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport...

I've run into this before with pexpect (and I'm trying to remember how I worked around it).
You can re-synchronize with the terminal session by sending a return and then expecting for the prompt in a loop. When the expect times out then you know that you are synchronized.
The root cause is probably that you are either:
Calling send without a match expect (because you don't care about the output)
Running a command that produces output but expecting for a pattern in the middle of that output and then not to next prompt that is at end of the output. One way to deal with this is to change your expect pattern to "(.+)PROMPT" - this will expect until the next prompt and capture all the output of the command sent (which you can parse in the next step).

I faced a similar problem. I tried waiting for the command to be printed on the screen and the sending enter.
I you want to execute say command 'cmd', then you do:
session.send(cmd)
index = session.expect([cmd, pexpect.TIMEOUT], 1)
session.send('\n')
index = session.expect([whatever you expect])
Worked for me.

I'm not sure this is the root of your problem, but it may be worth a try.
Something I've run into is that when you spawn a session that starts with or lands you in a shell, you have to deal with quirks of the TERM type (vt220, color-xterm, etc.). You will see characters used to move the cursor or change colors. The problem is almost guaranteed to show up with the prompt; the string you are looking for to identify the prompt appears twice because of how color changes are handled (the prompt is sent, then codes to backspace, change the color, then the prompt is sent again... but expect sees both instances of the prompt).
Here's something that handles this, guaranteed to be ugly, hacky, not very Pythonic, and functional:
import pexpect
# wait_for_prompt: handle terminal prompt craziness
# returns either the pexpect.before contents that occurred before the
# first sighting of the prompt, or returns False if we had a timeout
#
def wait_for_prompt(session, wait_for_this, wait_timeout=30):
status = session.expect([wait_for_this, pexpect.TIMEOUT, pexpect.EOF], timeout=wait_timeout)
if status != 0:
print 'ERROR : timeout waiting for "' + wait_for_this + '"'
return False
before = session.before # this is what we will want to return
# now look for and handle any additional sightings of the prompt
while True:
try:
session.expect(wait_for_this, timeout=0.1)
except:
# we expect a timeout here. All is normal. Move along, Citizen.
break # get out of the while loop
return before
s = pexpect.spawn('ssh me#myserver.local')
s.expect('password') # yes, we assume that the SSH key is already there
# and that we will successfully connect. I'm bad.
s.sendline('mypasswordisverysecure') # Also assuming the right password
prompt = 'me$'
wait_for_prompt(s, prompt)
s.sendline('df -h') # how full are my disks?
results = wait_for_prompt(s, prompt)
if results:
print results
sys.exit(0)
else:
print 'Misery. You lose.'
sys.exit(1)

I know this is an old thread, but I didn't find much about this online and I just got through making my own quick-and-dirty workaround for this. I'm also using pexpect to run through a list of network devices and record statistics and so forth, and my pexpect.spawn.before will also get out of sync sometimes. This happens very often on the faster, more modern devices for some reason.
My solution was to write an empty carriage return between each command, and check the len() of the .before variable. If it's too small, it means it only captured the prompt, which means it must be at least one command behind the actual ssh session. If that's the case, the program sends another empty line to move the actual data that I want into the .before variable:
def new_line(this, iteration):
if iteration > 4:
return data
else:
iteration+=1
this.expect(":")
this.sendline(" \r")
data = this.before
if len(data) < 50:
# The numer 50 was chosen because it should be longer than just the hostname and prompt of the device, but shorter than any actual output
data = new_line(this, iteration)
return data
def login(hostname):
this = pexpect.spawn("ssh %s" % hostname)
stop = this.expect([pexpect.TIMEOUT,pexpect.EOF,":"], timeout=20)
if stop == 2:
try:
this.sendline("\r")
this.expect(":")
this.sendline("show version\r")
version = new_line(this,0)
this.expect(":")
this.sendline("quit\r")
return version
except:
print 'failed to execute commands'
this.kill(0)
else:
print 'failed to login'
this.kill(0)
I accomplish this by a recursive command that will call itself until the .before variable finally captures the command's output, or until it calls itself 5 times, in which case it simply gives up.

Call the Python interactive interpreter from within a Python script

Is there any way to start up the Python interpreter from within a script , in a manner similar to just using python -i so that the objects/namespace, etc. from the current script are retained? The reason for not using python -i is that the script initializes a connection to an XML-RPC server, and I need to be able to stop the entire program if there's an error. I can't loop until there's valid input because apparently, I can't do something like this:
#!/usr/bin/python -i
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import xmlrpclib
# Create an object to represent our server.
server_url = str(raw_input("Server: "))
while not server = xmlrpclib.Server(server_url):
print 'Unable to connect to server. Please try again'
else:
print 'Xmlrpclib.Server object `__main__.server\' of URL `', server_url, "' created"
break
# Python interpreter starts...
because:
% chmod u+x ./rpcclient.py
% ./rpclient.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "./rpcclient.py", line 8
while not server = xmlrpclib.Server(server_url):
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
>>>
Unfortunately, python -i starts the interpreter just after it prints out the traceback, so I somehow have to call the interactive interpreter - replacing the execution of the script so it retains the server connection - from within the script

Have you tried reading the error message? :)
= is assignment, you want the comparison operator == instead.

Well, I finally got it to work.
Basically, I put the entire try/except/else clause in a while True: loop, with the else suite being a break statement and the end of the except suite being a continue statement. The result is that it now continually loops if the user puts in an address that doesn't have a fully compliant XML-RPC2 server listening. Here's how it turned out:
#!/usr/bin/python -i
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import xmlrpclib, socket
from sys import exit
# Create an object to represent our server.
#server = xmlrpclib.Server(server_url) and print 'Xmlrpclib.Server object `__main__.server\' of URL `', server_url, "' created"
server_url = str(raw_input("Server: "))
server = xmlrpclib.ServerProxy(server_url)
while True:
try:
server.system.listMethods()
except xmlrpclib.ProtocolError, socket.error:
print 'Unable to connect to server. Please try again'
server_url = str(raw_input("Server: "))
server = xmlrpclib.ServerProxy(server_url)
continue
except EOFError:
exit(1)
else:
break
print 'Xmlrpclib.Server object `__main__.server\' of URL `', server_url, "' created"
# Python interpreter starts...
Thank you very much!
...and I have to wait another day to accept this...