Python subprocess has no attribute "check_output"

Question

I have code that uses subprocess.check_output just fine, I had to reinstall Ubuntu 16.04 and afterwards it's complaining that it now can't find the attribute check_output.

import subprocess

p = subprocess.check_output("here is a command", shell=True)

/usr/bin/python2.7 /home/username/subprocess.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/username/subprocess.py", line 1, in <module>
    import subprocess
  File "/home/username/subprocess.py", line 4, in <module>
    p = subprocess.check_output("here is a command", shell=True)
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'check_output'

Note that I am using Python2.7 which according to this post here should resolve this problem but it doesn't.

subprocess.check_output() module object has out attribute 'check_output'

What gives? I tried pip install subprocess or pip uninstall subprocess but no luck. How do I update subprocess to the latest version so that it has the check_output attribute? I don't want to use Popen.

Can you show us how you know for sure that you're using Python2.7? Can you provide some output from running the same steps in the interactive shell? — Alan Kavanagh
– Alan Kavanagh, Commented Sep 12, 2017 at 15:19

Marjan Moderc · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-12 15:27:50Z

7

Your problem is that you have created a script, called subprocess.py, so the original library subprocess was "overridden" by your module.

Rename your script /home/username/subprocess.py to something that is not the name of the standard Python module! This rule of course applies to all the other Python libraries!

answered Sep 12, 2017 at 15:27

Marjan Moderc

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2 Comments

Calculus Over a year ago

Wow you're right, I just overlooked the fact that I named the file subprocess.py . What a lame problem :(

philn Over a year ago

just another example of how python needs to fix package vs. relative imports.

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