Running diff command with --exclude doesn't work from python

Question

I am running the diff command on MAC as follows and it works fine but when I run through python the --exclude option doesn't work meaning the command output still lists files under /Users/username/FWIntegration/branch_4355c1/.git, can anyone suggest how to debug this or how to fix this

/usr/bin/diff -x '.*' -x 'tech' -rq /Users/username/FWIntegration/repo2mirror /Users/username/FWIntegration/branch_4355c1 --exclude=/Users/username/FWIntegration/branch_4355c1/.git/

Running from python

cmd = "/usr/bin/diff -x '.*' -x 'tech' -rq /Users/username/FWIntegration/repo2mirror /Users/username/FWIntegration/branch_4355c1 --exclude=/Users/username/FWIntegration/branch_4355c1/.git/"

output,error = runCmd(cmd)

def runCmd(cmd):
    out = ""
    err = ""
    logger.info("Running command %s"%cmd)
    proc = Popen(cmd.split(' '), stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE)
    try:
        with proc.stdout as stdout:
            for line in stdout:
                print line,
                out = out + line
                #android_loader_output+=line
                #if 'ERROR:' in line:
                    #print line
    except:
        print "%s failed"%cmd
        print traceback.format_exc()

    try:
        with proc.stderr as stderr:
            for line in stderr:
                print line,
                err = err + line
                #android_loader_output+=line
                #if 'ERROR:' in line:
                    #print line
    except:
        print "%s failed"%cmd
        print traceback.format_exc()

    #print out
    #print err
    return out,err

it lists like

Only in /Users/username/FWIntegration/branch_4355c1/.git/refs/tags: DIN2944T146R6_REL_9_74_5 
Only in /Users/username/FWIntegration/branch_4355c1/.git/refs/tags: DIN2944T18R2_REL_9_48_1 
Only in /Users/username/FWIntegration/branch_4355c1/.git/refs/tags: DIN2944T51R2_REL_9_55_2

Barmar · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-06 05:27:19Z

1

The problem is due to the quotes you have in the cmd string. You're not processing the command with a shell, you're using cmd.split() to parse it, so those quotes are being sent literally to the program.

Use a shell so everything will be parsed properly:

proc = Popen(cmd, shell=True, stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE)

answered Mar 6, 2018 at 5:27

Barmar

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