Question

I am trying to run a command through Python’s subprocess, but it won’t run properly. If I type into the shell:

pack < packfile.dat

where pack is my software and packfile is the input file, then the software runs fine.

If I try this in python:

import subprocess as sp
import shlex

cmd = 'pack < packfile.dat'.split()
p = sp.Popen(cmd)

The software complains:

Pack must be run with: pack < inputfile.inp 

Reading input file... (Control-C aborts)

and it hangs there.

This last part is specific to my software, but the fact is that the two methods of running the same command give different results, when this shouldn’t be the case.

Can anyone tell me what I’m doing wrong?

Actually, I intend to eventually do:

p = sp.Popen(cmd,stdout=sp.PIPE,stderr=sp.PIPE)
stdout, stderr = p.communicate()

Since I am a little new to this, if this is not best-practice, please let me know.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

“<” isn’t a parameter to the command, and shouldn’t be passed as one.

Try:

p = sp.Popen(cmd,stdout=sp.PIPE,stderr=sp.PIPE, stdin=open('packfile.dat'))