6/22/2020 How to use the bash shell with Python's subprocess module instead of /bin/sh - SaltyCrane Blog

SALTYCRANE (/) BLOG (/BLOG/) — Notes on JavaScript and web development

How to use the bash shell with Python's

By default, running subprocess.Popen with shell=True uses /bin/sh as the shell. If you want to change the shell to
/bin/bash, set the executable keyword argument to /bin/bash.

Solution thanks this great article: Working with Python subprocess - Shells, Processes, Streams, Pipes, Redirects and More
(http://jimmyg.org/blog/2009/working-with-python-subprocess.html)

import subprocess

def bash_command(cmd):
subprocess.Popen(cmd, shell=True, executable='/bin/bash')

bash_command('a="Apples and oranges" && echo "${a/oranges/grapes}"')

Output:

Apples and grapes

For some reason, the above didn't work for my specific case, so I had to use the following instead:

import subprocess

def bash_command(cmd):
subprocess.Popen(['/bin/bash', '-c', cmd])

See also
Python subprocess.Popen documentation (http://docs.python.org/library/subprocess.html#subprocess.Popen)
Ubuntu documentation on differences between dash and bash (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DashAsBinSh)
GNU Bash Reference Manual (http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/index.html)

Related posts
How to capture stdout in real-time with Python (/blog/2009/10/how-capture-stdout-in-real-time-python/) — posted 2009-10-12
How to get stdout and stderr using Python's subprocess module (/blog/2008/09/how-get-stdout-and-stderr-using-python-
subprocess-module/) — posted 2008-09-23
How to use python and popen4 to capture stdout and stderr from a command (/blog/2007/03/how-to-use-python-and-popen4-
to-capture_12/) — posted 2007-03-12

Comments
#1 Osquarith commented on 2015-11-12:

Can /usr/bin/env bash be used?

disqus:2354674668

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