Question

I am running python 2.7, I can run a program fine when I open the *.py file.

But when I go to cmd and type “python *.py any other args“, it doesn’t work, it says that python is not recognised. This is hard because I am trying to do things like sys.argv[], any help is great.

Thanks

Answer 1

You probably don’t have the Python executable on your PATH. The PATH variable tells the command interpreter where to find the commands you are issuing.

If you are on a Unix/Linux system try

/usr/bin/python

Under Windows it may vary, so find where Python (python.exe specifically) was installed and specify that complete path to get the command to run. I think this will work though:

c:\Python27\python.exe

Under Unix issue this command at the prompt:

/usr/bin/python myprog.py  arg1 arg2

Under Windows:

c:\Python27\python.exe myprog.py arg1 arg2

and it should run.

The long term solution is to add the Python directory to your PATH variable.

Since you are using Windows, this How to add python.exe to Windows PATH might be helpful. Or this page specifically for Windows 7.