Running external programs with specifications from python script

[ubuntufox]

Hey,

I'm fairly new to using python, but I started in my computer science course and I really enjoy using it. I was wondering if I could use python to run a program in bash where the python script specifies options such as:

mencoder -dvd 1 -oac copy -ovc copy -o movie-rip.avi

Is there any way I can change the options through an interactive python program? Or is it just ridiculously complicated?

Thanks for the consideration.

[bartonc]

Hey,

I'm fairly new to using python, but I started in my computer science course and I really enjoy using it. I was wondering if I could use python to run a program in bash where the python script specifies options such as:

mencoder -dvd 1 -oac copy -ovc copy -o movie-rip.avi

Is there any way I can change the options through an interactive python program? Or is it just ridiculously complicated?

Thanks for the consideration.

Not complicated at all:

# unix command line :mencoder -dvd 1 -oac copy -ovc copy -o movie-rip.avi
# 1st make some lists
 
Cmd = 'mencoder'
CmdOptions = ('-dvd', '-oac', '-ovc', '-o')
ReadableOptions = ('use', 'meaingful', 'terms', 'output file name')
 
# a dictionary for the results of user interaction
optionsDict = {} # empty, for now
 
# the interactive function
def GetOptionFromUser(readableName):
    return raw_input('Enter the value for %s: ' %(readableName))
 
# the "script"
for i, option in enumerate(ReadableOptions): # this is how we count iteration
    optionsDict[CmdOptions[i]] = GetOptionFromUser(option)
 
 
# create the command string
cmdStr = "%s %s" %(Cmd, " ".join([("%s %s" %(key, optionsDict[key])) for key in CmdOptions]))
 
# then, call os.system(cmdStr), os.spawn(), etc. depending on your needs
# Here, just print the command line:
 
print cmdStr
 

output after typing in only the values:
mencoder -dvd 1 -oac copy -ovc copy -o movie-rip.avi

[bartonc]

Not complicated at all:

# unix command line :mencoder -dvd 1 -oac copy -ovc copy -o movie-rip.avi
# 1st make some lists
 
Cmd = 'mencoder'
CmdOptions = ('-dvd', '-oac', '-ovc', '-o')
ReadableOptions = ('use', 'meaingful', 'terms', 'output file name')
 
# a dictionary for the results of user interaction
optionsDict = {} # empty, for now
 
# the interactive function
def GetOptionFromUser(readableName):
    return raw_input('Enter the value for %s: ' %(readableName))
 
# the "script"
for i, option in enumerate(ReadableOptions): # this is how we count iteration
    optionsDict[CmdOptions[i]] = GetOptionFromUser(option)
 
 
# create the command string
cmdStr = "%s %s" %(Cmd, " ".join([("%s %s" %(key, optionsDict[key])) for key in CmdOptions]))
 
# then, call os.system(cmdStr), os.spawn(), etc. depending on your needs
# Here, just print the command line:
 
print cmdStr
 

output after typing in only the values:
mencoder -dvd 1 -oac copy -ovc copy -o movie-rip.avi

Line 21 has a lot going on in it. Here is that line broken down into its constituent parts:

 
optionList = [] # an empty list
for key in CmdOptions:
    optionList.append("%s %s" %(key, optionsDict[key])
optionStr = " ".join(optionList)
cmdStr = "%s %s" %(Cmd, optionStr)

[ubuntufox]

Thanks a lot guys. You really helped me out. I'll just chew through the code, figure out what it is that you did, and get it to work for me. lol

[bartonc]

Thanks a lot guys. You really helped me out. I'll just chew through the code, figure out what it is that you did, and get it to work for me. lol

I just caught an error on line 3. Here's the correction:

#
    optionList.append("%s %s" %(key, optionsDict[key])) # missing paren