Output of command to list using Python

Question

I'm writing an automation script, where it needs to run a command and the output of command should be captured as a list.

For example:

# ls -l | awk '{print $9}'
test1
test2

I want the output to be captured as a list like var = ["test1", "test2"].

Right now I tried this but it is saving as string instead of list:

# Filter the tungsten services
s = subprocess.Popen(["ls -l | awk '{print $9}'"], shell=True, stdout=subprocess.PIPE).stdout
service_state = s.read()

Please guide me if anyone has any idea to achieve this.

use shlex.split() on your command string; unless you want some bugs in your software. — Burhan Khalid
– Burhan Khalid, Commented Jul 18, 2014 at 11:30
I wouldn't parse ls -l if you don't need to mywiki.wooledge.org/ParsingLs. You can use globbing with * to expand all files and directories in the current directory. e.g. echo * — John B
– John B, Commented Jul 18, 2014 at 12:18

Aaron Digulla · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-18 11:29:14Z

6

You can use

service_states = s.read().splitlines()

but note that this is brittle: File names can contain odd characters (like spaces).

So you're probably better off using os.listdir(path) which gives you a list of file names.

answered Jul 18, 2014 at 11:29

Aaron Digulla

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3 Comments

Aaron Digulla Over a year ago

@SwaroopKundeti: Then you might want to accept the answer: stackoverflow.com/help/accepted-answer

Swaroop Kundeti Over a year ago

Thanks Aaron, I dint know how to accept the answer, Thanks so much

Abhishek Ghosh Over a year ago

If your command returns multiple lines but you are getting the output in a single line from subprocess.check_output , then use splitlines() directly on subprocess.check_output like result_list = subprocess.check_output(...).splitlines()

OBu · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-18 11:28:35Z

0

You can post-process the string according to your needs.

string.splitlines() (https://docs.python.org/2/library/stdtypes.html#str.splitlines) will break the string into a list of lines.

If you need to split the results further, you can use .split().

answered Jul 18, 2014 at 11:28

OBu

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Comments

Juan Diego Godoy Robles · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-18 11:44:45Z

0

No needed for subprocess:

a, d , c = os.walk('.').next()
service_state = d + c

answered Jul 18, 2014 at 11:44

Juan Diego Godoy Robles

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