Execute a shell function from python subprocess

Question

I'm trying to kill a specific process with a command which works well in the shell but not from python subprocess

import subprocess
subprocess.call(["kill", "$(ps | grep process | awk '{ print $1}' | head -n1)"], shell=False)

A work around would be to put this command into a shell script and run the shell script. Is it possible from python subprocess directly ?

kill $(ps | grep process | awk '{ print $1}' | head -n1)" use pkill process? — KamilCuk
– KamilCuk, Commented Mar 19, 2021 at 10:08
@KamilCuk I cannot use pkill as not available in the yocto distribution I have — hotips
– hotips, Commented Mar 19, 2021 at 10:19
@mousetrail I tried with shell True and it was not working better — hotips
– hotips, Commented Mar 19, 2021 at 10:19

Cristian · Accepted Answer · 2021-03-19 10:30:50Z

2

import subprocess

subprocess.Popen("kill $(ps | grep ncat | awk '{print $1}' | head -n1)", shell=True)

In your example, you don't create a subprocess from bash, but at the same time you use $(...) which is a bash instruction. To be more precise, you create a kill process and pass it argument $(...) which is not precomputed.

The above example creates a bash process, and then tells it to interpret kill $(...). Bash converts $(...) to a value, and then it runs kill VALUE.

edited Mar 19, 2021 at 10:30

answered Mar 19, 2021 at 10:13

Cristian

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1 Comment

KamilCuk Over a year ago

Yes, only one "but", but /bin/sh is not necessarily bash. It may be other Bourne shell.

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