Python & macOS: open new Terminal window from Python, passing command to be executed

Question

I am using the following two lines of Python code to open a new Terminal window from a Python script, and this works fine:

import os
os.system('open -a Terminal .')

Now I would like to pass the new Terminal window a command to be executed, for example

ls

How can I do that?

See this thread here: stackoverflow.com/questions/19308415/… — Daniel R. Livingston
– Daniel R. Livingston, Commented Jan 23, 2018 at 18:36
You want to make Terminal open with the starting point of something like bash -c "ls; exec bash". I'm not familiar with OS X, but in most Linux terminal emulators you can pass it in a flag. — Norrius
– Norrius, Commented Jan 23, 2018 at 18:39
Actually, none of the solutions for OS X explained in the recommended thread works... — user3352382
– user3352382, Commented Jan 24, 2018 at 7:59

Shashwat Aryal · Accepted Answer · 2020-03-31 10:09:06Z

5

Since the old answer is depreciated,

Download applescript if you havent,

pip3 install applescript

python script

from applescript import tell

#set what command you want to run here
yourCommand = 'ls'

tell.app( 'Terminal', 'do script "' + yourCommand + '"')

answered Mar 31, 2020 at 10:09

Shashwat Aryal

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Comments

Ryan Loggerythm · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-07 05:28:48Z

4

Try this

import appscript

appscript.app('Terminal').do_script('ls')  # or any other command you choose

answered Jan 7, 2019 at 5:28

Ryan Loggerythm

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4 Comments

Keith Over a year ago

appscript module hasn't been supported or updated in several years.

Keith Over a year ago

I could no longer download the appscript module. The answer should no longer be accepted since it will waste peoples time. Instead use the applescript module which is still alive and kicking. :)

Keith Over a year ago

The usage of the applescript module is similar: applescript.tell.app( 'Terminal', 'do script "' + cmd + '"', background=True )

Ryan Loggerythm Over a year ago

Still, don't downvote old answers because we can't future-proof anything. Just create a new answer

fabiog1901 · Accepted Answer · 2024-10-03 17:30:23Z

1

No need for extra libraries, see example below

import subprocess
import shlex

cmd = "sleep 10"

subprocess.run(
    shlex.split(
        f"""osascript -e 'tell app "Terminal" to activate' -e 'tell app "Terminal" to do script "{cmd}" '"""
    )
)

answered Oct 3, 2024 at 17:30

fabiog1901

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