How do we execute "./<script_name>" from python?

Question

I am currently writing a python script that will automate make files that are there in various directories under my project. The directory structure is like this :

                Repository
                  |
                  |
            _____ |_____
           |            |
         Builds        src
           |            |
         __|__        __|__
   Scripts   xyz     abc   3rdpartytools
    |                          |
    conf                     boost
    |                          |
script1.py                     b2

script1.py is my python file and all the make files that I want to execute are present under the 3rdpartytools directory. boost directory is just an example. Now, I want to execute file b2. From the shell, ./b2 works.

I tried using subprocess.call from the python file. I tried

call(["cd"," ../../../src/3rdpartytools/boost;./b2"]) but i get /usr/bin/cd: line 2: cd: ../../../src/3rdpartytools/boost/b2: No such file or directory

The same command when I execute from shell, works fine.

Python 2.7 and CentOS.

Tried that out, but I get OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory — Tejas
– Tejas, Commented Sep 26, 2015 at 8:25
I tried call(["cd","/home/tejas/Repository/src/3rdpartytools/boost;./b2"]) but I still get /usr/bin/cd: line 2: cd: /home/tejas/Repository/src/3rdpartytools/boost/;./b2: No such file or directory.... Works from shell though! — Tejas
– Tejas, Commented Sep 26, 2015 at 8:32
Use os.chdir() to change directories before using call(). — Barmar
– Barmar, Commented Sep 26, 2015 at 8:45
related: Running a batch file in another directory in python — jfs
– jfs, Commented Sep 26, 2015 at 21:34

MisterMiyagi · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-26 09:16:32Z

2

You are incorrectly using subprocess.call in multiple ways. subprocess.call will not actually call a shell, unless you specifically ask it to. Thus, the symbol ; has no special meaning. Since it is in the same string as the path, you try to cd into ../../../src/3rdpartytools/boost;./b", not doing a cd and then executing the function.

Use os.chdir to go to the appropriate directory, then call ./b2 using subprocess.call(["./b2"]).

answered Sep 26, 2015 at 9:16

MisterMiyagi

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1 Comment

jfs Over a year ago

@Tejas: if you want to change the working directory only for a single command then use call(os.path.join(wdir, 'b2'), cwd=wdir) (no need to call os.chdir())

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