How to open a CLI program in python and enter a command(Mac OSX)?

Question

I have a Mac program with a command line interface that I am trying to automate from Python. So far I have:

os.system("cd /Applications/program/MyApp.app/Contents/bin/; ./MyApp -prompt;")

Which runs the CLI. Now I want to enter a command into the command line from Python. Is there a way to pass this in as an argument to the first command?

Example:

os.system("cd /Applications/program/MyApp.app/Contents/bin/; ./MyApp -prompt; and then run MySpecialCommand in CLI")

I'm not commited to a specific approach, I just need to be able to enter the command into the CLI from a python script.

Agreed with duplicate. The first (accepted) answer even explains why to use subprocess.call instead of os.system. — Matthew Cole
– Matthew Cole, Commented Sep 8, 2017 at 19:43

s3bw · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-08 19:26:10Z

1

Try using sys.argv:

import os
import sys

my_string = ' '.join(sys.argv[1:])

template_cmd = "cd /Applications/program/MyApp.app/Contents/bin/; ./MyApp -prompt; {additional_arg}"

os.system(template_cmd.format(additional_arg=my_string))

This would be run as follows:

python my_script.py ls -l

Where ls -l would be your entered command.

edited Sep 8, 2017 at 19:26

answered Sep 8, 2017 at 19:10

s3bw

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4 Comments

Matthew Cole Over a year ago

here, argparse is probably overkill (although it's a very useful module). The OP is only expecting one argument, with no need to transform or inspect them.

AlanGhalan Over a year ago

How would you write this If there were only ever going to be one command and it would always be the same?

s3bw Over a year ago

Why would you have it in the CLI if it were always the same?

AlanGhalan Over a year ago

I want python to enter it into the programs command line. I don't want to enter it from the command line myself.

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