Question

I have just been playing around with IPython. Currently I am wondering how it would be possible to run a shell-command with a python variable within a function. For example:

def x(go):
    return !ls -la {go}

x("*.rar")

This gives me “sh: 1: Syntax error: end of file unexpected”. Could anybody please give me a clue on how to let my “x”-function invoke ls like “ls -la *.rar”? There are *.rar files in my working directory.

Thank you in advance,
Rainer

Answer 1

If you look at the history command output, you’ll see that to call external programs ipython uses _ip.system method.

Hence, this should work for you:

def x(go):
    return _ip.system("ls -la {0}".format(go))

However, please note that outside ipython you should probably use subprocess.Popen.