Linux, Python Open Terminal Run Global Python Command

Not sure if this is possible. I have a set of python scripts and have modified the linux PATH in ~/.bashrc so that whenever I open a terminal, the python scripts are available to r

Solution 1:

Popen does not load the system PATH for the session you create in a python script. You have to modify the PATH in the session to include the directory to your project like so:

someterminalcommand = "my_command.py (args)"

my_env = os.environ.copy()
my_env["PATH"] = "/home/usr/mypythonlib/:" + my_env["PATH"]

combine = subprocess.Popen(shlex.split(someterminalcommand), env=my_env)

combine.wait()

This allows me to run my "my_command.py" file from a different python session just like I had a terminal window open.

Solution 2:

If you're using Gnome, the gnome-terminal command is rather useful in this situation.

As an example of very basic usage, the following code will spawn a terminal, and run a Python REPL in it:

import subprocess

subprocess.Popen(["gnome-terminal", "-e", "python"])

Now, if you want to run a specific script, you will need to concatenate its path with python, for the last element of that list it the line that will be executed in the new terminal. For instance:

subprocess.Popen(["gnome-terminal", "-e", "python my_script.py"])

If your script is executable, you can omit python:

subprocess.Popen(["gnome-terminal", "-e", "my_script.py"])

If you want to pass parameters to your script, simply add them to the python command:

subprocess.Popen(["gnome-terminal", "-e", "python my_script.py var1 var2"])

Note that if you want to run your script with a particular version of Python, you should specify it, by explicitly calling "python2" or "python3".

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A small example:

# my_script.py
import sys
print(sys.argv)
input()

# main.py
import subprocess
subprocess.Popen(["gnome-terminal", "-e", "python3 my_script.py hello world"])

Running python3 main.py will spawn a new terminal, with ['my_script.py', 'hello', 'world'] printed, and waited for an input.