Assign linux command output to variable in python 2.6.6

Question

I am trying to port a shell script to python. Used various methods from google search, but none of them seems to work.

This is the shell command.

version=`awk '{print $5}' file_name | tr -d ")" `

These are the methods tried.

version = subprocess.call(['awk','{print $5}','file_name','|','tr','-d'], shell=True)
version = os.system("`awk '{print $5}' file_name | tr -d ")" `", shell=True)
version = commands.getstatusoutput(" awk '{print $5}' file_name | tr -d ")"  ")

Neither of the above commands worked. Could someone please help me with it.

If your idea of "porting" a shell script to Python is to wrap the shell calls up with os.system() then there's pretty much no point in the exercise whatsoever. — Chris Davies
– Chris Davies, Commented Apr 18, 2018 at 18:37
I agree with you. But, initially I wanted to make the script run as a python script and later port each possible function to use python library. It does look like a double work, I'll now try directly to use python instead of shell calls(I am new to using python, but that's no excuse I guess). — Raj
– Raj, Commented Apr 19, 2018 at 0:49

Radovan Garabík · Accepted Answer · 2018-04-18 11:18:46Z

2

Your examples have various quoting errors.

The most straightforward solution would be:

subprocess.call('awk \'{print $5}\' file_name | tr -d ")"', shell=True)

but that's not recommended, because file_name can contain spaces (you can get around by shell=False and proper use of list of arguments, but it's getting unreadable).

I'd suggest str.replace(')', '') insted of tr -d, and something likex.split()[4] for x in open('file_name') instead of awk, to get a pure python version.

answered Apr 18, 2018 at 11:18

Radovan Garabík

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