How to call a self-defined command line function in Python

Question

I'm trying to call a self-defined command line function in python. I defined my function using apple script in /.bash_profile as follows:

function vpn-connect  {
/usr/bin/env osascript <<-EOF
tell application "System Events"
        tell current location of network preferences
                set VPN to service "YESVPN" -- your VPN name here
                if exists VPN then connect VPN
                repeat while (current configuration of VPN is not connected)
                    delay 1
                end repeat
        end tell
end tell
EOF
}

And when I tested $ vpn-connect in bash, vpn-connect works fine. My vpn connection is good.

So I created vpn.py which has following code:

import os

os.system("echo 'It is running.'")
os.system("vpn-connect")

I run it with python vpn.py and got the following output:

vpn Choushishi$ python vpn.py 
It is running.
sh: vpn-connect: command not found

This proves calling self-defined function is somehow different from calling the ones that's pre-defined by the system. I have looked into pydoc os but couldn't find useful information.

I suspect this has to do with the fact that os.system starts a subshell, and .bash_profile is not read for non-login shells, but I don't know why the existing function would not be visible in the subshell. — Daniel Roseman
– Daniel Roseman, Commented Apr 25, 2014 at 10:55
You might want to look at interfacing with AppleScript directly from Python, rather than using a shell script as an intermediary. — chepner
– chepner, Commented Apr 25, 2014 at 15:45

User · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-25 12:19:32Z

3

A way would be to read the ./bash_profile before. As @anishsane pointed out you can do this:

vpn=subprocess.Popen(["bash"],shell=True,stdin= subprocess.PIPE)
vpn.communicate("source /Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/.bash_profile;vpn-connect")

or with os.system

os.system('bash -c "source /Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/.bash_profile;vpn-connect"')

Or try

import subprocess
subprocess.call(['vpn-connect'], shell = True)

and try
```
import os
os.system('bash -c vpn-connect')
```
according to http://linux.die.net/man/1/bash

edited Apr 25, 2014 at 12:19

answered Apr 25, 2014 at 11:40

User

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2 Comments

shi Over a year ago

os.system('bash -c "source /Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/.bash_profile;vpn-connect"') works. Thanks!

anishsane Over a year ago

Another option would be to use vpn=subprocess.Popen(["bash"],shell=True,stdin= subprocess.PIPE);vpn.communicate("vpn-connect");

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