To get all stdout as a string:
from subprocess import check_output as qx
cmd = r'C:\Tools\Dvb_pid_3_0.exe'
output = qx(cmd)
To get both stdout and stderr as a single string:
from subprocess import STDOUT
output = qx(cmd, stderr=STDOUT)
To get all lines as a list:
lines = output.splitlines()
To get lines as they are being printed by the subprocess:
from subprocess import Popen, PIPE
p = Popen(cmd, stdout=PIPE, bufsize=1)
for line in iter(p.stdout.readline, ''):
print line,
p.stdout.close()
if p.wait() != 0:
raise RuntimeError("%r failed, exit status: %d" % (cmd, p.returncode))
Add stderr=STDOUT
to the Popen()
call to merge stdout/stderr.
Note: if cmd
uses block-buffering in the non-interactive mode then lines won’t appear until the buffer flushes. winpexpect
module might be able to get the output sooner.
To save the output to a file:
import subprocess
with open('output.txt', 'wb') as f:
subprocess.check_call(cmd, stdout=f)
# to read line by line
with open('output.txt') as f:
for line in f:
print line,
If cmd
always requires input even an empty one; set stdin
:
import os
with open(os.devnull, 'rb') as DEVNULL:
output = qx(cmd, stdin=DEVNULL) # use subprocess.DEVNULL on Python 3.3+
You could combine these solutions e.g., to merge stdout/stderr, and to save the output to a file, and to provide an empty input:
import os
from subprocess import STDOUT, check_call as x
with open(os.devnull, 'rb') as DEVNULL, open('output.txt', 'wb') as f:
x(cmd, stdin=DEVNULL, stdout=f, stderr=STDOUT)
To provide all input as a single string you could use .communicate()
method:
#!/usr/bin/env python
from subprocess import Popen, PIPE
cmd = ["python", "test.py"]
p = Popen(cmd, stdin=PIPE, stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE, universal_newlines=True)
stdout_text, stderr_text = p.communicate(input="1\n\n")
print("stdout: %r\nstderr: %r" % (stdout_text, stderr_text))
if p.returncode != 0:
raise RuntimeError("%r failed, status code %d" % (cmd, p.returncode))
where test.py
:
print raw_input('abc')[::-1]
raw_input('press enter to exit')
If your interaction with the program is more like a conversation than you might need winpexpect
module. Here’s an example from pexpect
docs:
# This connects to the openbsd ftp site and
# downloads the recursive directory listing.
from winpexpect import winspawn as spawn
child = spawn ('ftp ftp.openbsd.org')
child.expect ('Name .*: ')
child.sendline ('anonymous')
child.expect ('Password:')
child.sendline ('[email protected]')
child.expect ('ftp> ')
child.sendline ('cd pub')
child.expect('ftp> ')
child.sendline ('get ls-lR.gz')
child.expect('ftp> ')
child.sendline ('bye')
To send special keys such as F3
, F10
on Windows you might need SendKeys
module or its pure Python implementation SendKeys-ctypes
. Something like:
from SendKeys import SendKeys
SendKeys(r"""
{LWIN}
{PAUSE .25}
r
C:\Tools\Dvb_pid_3_0.exe{ENTER}
{PAUSE 1}
1{ENTER}
{PAUSE 1}
2{ENTER}
{PAUSE 1}
{F3}
{PAUSE 1}
{F10}
""")
It doesn’t capture output.