Question

I can’t understand why running my Python program just opens IDLE.

Not sure if this is more appropriate on SuperUser, but here goes: I can’t run python scripts from my command line.

OSX 10.7.4, fresh install of python 3.2.3. I’ve got the following python script as test.py:

#! /usr/bin/env python
print("hello world")

I then make it executable:

$> chmod +x test.py

Then all of the following cause the terminal to open IDLE, with no other output of any kind, i.e. the script is not run:

• python test.py
• python -i test.py
• ./test.py

Even python -c 'print(5)' dumps me into IDLE without actually executing the command! IDLE itself works fine. Anyone know what could be going on?

Answer 1

Not very sure about the problem, but have you tried to run

python3 test.py

or change the shebang line to python3?

trying to take a look at the content in your “python” console script (e.g. by file which python) may also help reveal why it is linked to IDLE.