I am trying to use rsync with subprocess.call. Oddly, it works if I pass subprocess.call a string, but it won't work with a list (ala, Python's doc).
In [23]: sp.call("rsync -av content/ writings_raw/", shell=True) sending incremental file list sent 6236 bytes received 22 bytes 12516.00 bytes/sec total size is 324710 speedup is 51.89 Out[23]: 0
In [24]: sp.call(["rsync", "-av", "content/", "writings_raw/"], shell=True) rsync version 3.0.9 protocol version 30 Copyright (C) 1996-2011 by Andrew Tridgell, Wayne Davison, and others. Web site: http://rsync.samba.org/ Capabilities: 64-bit files, 64-bit inums, 32-bit timestamps, 64-bit long ints, socketpairs, hardlinks, symlinks, IPv6, batchfiles, inplace, append, ACLs, xattrs, iconv, symtimes rsync comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions. See the GNU General Public Licence for details. rsync is a file transfer program capable of efficient remote update via a fast differencing algorithm. Usage: rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC [DEST] or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST] or rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST] The ':' usages connect via remote shell, while '::' & 'rsync://' usages connect to an rsync daemon, and require SRC or DEST to start with a module name. Options -v, --verbose increase verbosity -q, --quiet suppress non-error messages --no-motd suppress daemon-mode MOTD (see manpage caveat) ... snipped.... repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter' --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6 --version print version number (-h) --help show this help (-h is --help only if used alone) ...snipped ... rsync error: syntax or usage error (code 1) at main.c(1438) [client=3.0.9] Out[24]: 1
What is wrong with how I use the list? How would you fix it? I need the list, because I would like to use variables. Of course I could use:
sp.call("rsync -av "+Orig+" "+Dest, shell=True)
But I would like to understand how subprocess
understands lists vs. strings.
In [36]: sp.call(['rsync', '-av', ORIG, DEST], shell=False) sending incremental file list sent 6253 bytes received 23 bytes 12552.00 bytes/sec total size is 324710 speedup is 51.74 Out[36]: 0
In [38]: sp.call("rsync -av"+" "+ORIG+" "+DEST, shell=False) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- OSError Traceback (most recent call last) <ipython-input-38-0d366d3ef8ce> in <module>() ----> 1 sp.call("rsync -av"+" "+ORIG+" "+DEST, shell=False) /usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.pyc in call(*popenargs, **kwargs) 491 retcode = call(["ls", "-l"]) 492 """ --> 493 return Popen(*popenargs, **kwargs).wait() 494 495 /usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.pyc in __init__(self, args, bufsize, executable, stdin, stdout, stderr, preexec_fn, close_fds, shell, cwd, env, universal_newlines, startupinfo, creationflags) 677 p2cread, p2cwrite, 678 c2pread, c2pwrite, --> 679 errread, errwrite) 680 681 if mswindows: /usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.pyc in _execute_child(self, args, executable, preexec_fn, close_fds, cwd, env, universal_newlines, startupinfo, creationflags, shell, p2cread, p2cwrite, c2pread, c2pwrite, errread, errwrite) 1257 if fd is not None: 1258 os.close(fd) -> 1259 raise child_exception 1260 1261 OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Popen is more general than subprocess. call . Popen doesn't block, allowing you to interact with the process while it's running, or continue with other things in your Python program. The call to Popen returns a Popen object.
The Python subprocess call() function returns the executed code of the program. If there is no program output, the function will return the code that it executed successfully. It may also raise a CalledProcessError exception.
The subprocess module provides a function named call. This function allows you to call another program, wait for the command to complete and then return the return code.
Popen is nonblocking. call and check_call are blocking. You can make the Popen instance block by calling its wait or communicate method.
subprocess
's rules for handling the command argument are actually a bit complex.
From the docs:
args
should be a sequence of program arguments or else a single string. By default, the program to execute is the first item inargs
ifargs
is a sequence. Ifargs
is a string, the interpretation is platform-dependent and described below. See theshell
andexecutable
arguments for additional differences from the default behavior. Unless otherwise stated, it is recommended to passargs
as a sequence.... Ifshell
is True, it is recommended to passargs
as a string rather than as a sequence.
With shell=False
:
On Unix, if
args
is a string, the string is interpreted as the name or path of the program to execute. However, this can only be done if not passing arguments to the program.On Windows, if
args
is a sequence, it will be converted to a string in a manner described in Converting an argument sequence to a string on Windows. This is because the underlyingCreateProcess()
operates on strings.
With shell=True
:
On Unix with
shell=True
, the shell defaults to/bin/sh
. Ifargs
is a string, the string specifies the command to execute through the shell. This means that the string must be formatted exactly as it would be when typed at the shell prompt. This includes, for example, quoting or backslash escaping filenames with spaces in them. If args is a sequence, the first item specifies the command string, and any additional items will be treated as additional arguments to the shell itself.On Windows with
shell=True
, theCOMSPEC
environment variable specifies the default shell. The only time you need to specifyshell=True
on Windows is when the command you wish to execute is built into the shell (e.g.dir
orcopy
). You do not needshell=True
to run a batch file or console-based executable.
(all emphasis mine)
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