I would like to run a command in Python Shell to execute a file with an argument.
For example: execfile("abc.py") but how to add 2 arguments?
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How is the code in the file you want to execute retrieve the arguments?martineau– martineau2011-04-26 11:42:34 +00:00Commented Apr 26, 2011 at 11:42
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I know this is old question, but you could alternately probably pass values to run a py file in a file and just open it up and read in the values.p wilson– p wilson2021-04-08 02:01:51 +00:00Commented Apr 8, 2021 at 2:01
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13 Answers
Actually, wouldn't we want to do this?
import sys
sys.argv = ['abc.py','arg1', 'arg2']
execfile('abc.py')
3 Comments
mlvljr
...and then, it turns out, that
python points to a different (2-vs-3) version of Python :)
philologon
I have to downvote buggywhip's answer because he missed this subtlety.
Anti Earth
Even still this will fail if
abc.py reads from sys import argvtry this:
import sys
sys.argv = ['arg1', 'arg2']
execfile('abc.py')
Note that when abc.py finishes, control will be returned to the calling program. Note too that abc.py can call quit() if indeed finished.
5 Comments
geotheory
Nothing is being passed to
abc.py as far as I can tell, nor can I see why it should.
Kouichi C. Nakamura
When my 'abc.py' has
argparse to parse input arguments, I got an error with this method: too few arguments. I ran python abc.py arg1 arg2 in terminal (this method works without an error) and then printed the content of sys.argv by printing and found that sys.argv contains the name 'abc.py' as the first element of the list. Actually, user2757262's code below with sys.argv = ['abc.py','arg1', 'arg2'] was the one that worked!Kouichi C. Nakamura
The documentation also says, "
argv[0] is the script name" .
Davis Herring
@AntiEarth: There being but one
sys in a process, it will find what you put there.
Bogota
@KouichiC.Nakamura I see that
execfile is removed from Python3. How can I use exec with arguments?execfile runs a Python file, but by loading it, not as a script. You can only pass in variable bindings, not arguments.
If you want to run a program from within Python, use subprocess.call. E.g.
import subprocess
subprocess.call(['./abc.py', arg1, arg2])
4 Comments
geotheory
The following format works for me:
subprocess.call("python abc.py 'arg1'", shell=True)
Fred Foo
@geotheory Sure that works, but it's less safe and it gets hairy when you want to pass strings with quotes in them to a subprocess.
marco
Can you explain what do you mean with "loading it, not as a script"? What's the difference?
Davis Herring
@marco: The idea is that a “script” would be a separate process with its own command line.
execfile runs in the current process, so (if it’s relevant) uses the current command line. In that sense, you can’t use it without “passing” arguments!import sys
import subprocess
subprocess.call([sys.executable, 'abc.py', 'argument1', 'argument2'])
Comments
You're confusing loading a module into the current interpreter process and calling a Python script externally.
The former can be done by importing the file you're interested in. execfile is similar to importing but it simply evaluates the file rather than creates a module out of it. Similar to "sourcing" in a shell script.
The latter can be done using the subprocess module. You spawn off another instance of the interpreter and pass whatever parameters you want to that. This is similar to shelling out in a shell script using backticks.
Comments
For more interesting scenarios, you could also look at the runpy module. Since python 2.7, it has the run_path function. E.g:
import runpy
import sys
# argv[0] will be replaced by runpy
# You could also skip this if you get sys.argv populated
# via other means
sys.argv = ['', 'arg1' 'arg2']
runpy.run_path('./abc.py', run_name='__main__')
Comments
You can't pass command line arguments with execfile(). Look at subprocess instead.
answered Apr 26, 2011 at 10:21
Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams
804k160 gold badges1.4k silver badges1.4k bronze badges
1 Comment
fatih_dur
See @user2757262's answer above.
If you set PYTHONINSPECT in the python file you want to execute
[repl.py]
import os
import sys
from time import time
os.environ['PYTHONINSPECT'] = 'True'
t=time()
argv=sys.argv[1:len(sys.argv)]
there is no need to use execfile, and you can directly run the file with arguments as usual in the shell:
python repl.py one two 3
>>> t
1513989378.880822
>>> argv
['one', 'two', '3']
1 Comment
Brian Bartoldson
This goes without saying for some users, but you can use the above approach on variables that were defined/used within functions by adding those variables to the global namespace inside the function.
If you want to run the scripts in parallel and give them different arguments you can do like below.
import os
os.system("python script.py arg1 arg2 & python script.py arg11 arg22")
3 Comments
Davis Herring
Please don’t recommend
os.system—its legitimate use cases are very rare.
Lou
Why is it illegitimate @DavisHerring? This comment isn't helpful to future readers who may want to know why Mehmet's solution is unsuitable.
Davis Herring
@Lou: That doesn't fit in a comment. I was surprised that I couldn't find one to link here, so I asked/answered my own.
Besides subprocess.call, you can also use subprocess.Popen. Like the following
subprocess.Popen(['./script', arg1, arg2])
Comments
This works:
subprocess.call("python abc.py arg1 arg2", shell=True)
Comments
runfile('abc.py', ['arg1', 'arg2'])
Comments
This works for me :
import subprocess
subprocess.call(['python.exe', './abc.py', arg1, arg2])
answered Dec 13, 2021 at 19:55
Enrique Benito Casado
2,1203 gold badges28 silver badges49 bronze badges