Question

Whenever I tried to run my python script in unix nothing would happen. I’d type something along the lines

 $ python script.py

and all that would be returned is

 $

Now I know it isn’t a problem in my code because that runs fine in idle, so I figured I needed to add something else to my code to be able to run it from the command line. In a google tutorial on python I was introduced to boilerplate code which is tacked onto the end of a function as such

def main():
  print ...
  etc etc
if __name__ == '__main__':
  main()

And if I write a function called main and run it just like that it works fine. However when I named my function something else, anything else, it won’t work. E.g.

def merge():
  print ..
  etc etc
if __name__ == '__merge__':
  merge()

That function won’t produce any output at all on the command line
Even if I just went and removed the n from the end of word main, each time it occurs in the main function above, it won’t work. How does one make python functions run on the command line? and what the heck is up with python only letting functions called main be run?

Thanks!

Answer 1

When you run a python script from the command line, __name__ is always ‘__main__’.

Try something like:

def merge():
  print ..
  etc etc
if __name__ == '__main__':
  merge()

From the Python interpreter, you have to do something more like:

>>> import script
>>> script.merge()