Easily creating a bash script in python

Question

I'm looking to write some tests that will create and execute a bash script. Bash itself has a nice way to do this:

 % cat > run.sh << EOF
 > echo "I ran this"
 > EOF
 % . run.sh
 I ran this

In Python I can do this:

 with open ('run.sh', 'w') as rsh:
    rsh.write('echo "I ran this"\n')
 -- etc ---

This is fine for a short script in Python, but I'm wondering if there is some technique I don't know about that let's me do something like what I can do in bash.

Triple quoted string literal?

user202729
– user202729

2018-03-27 15:15:36 +00:00
Commented Mar 27, 2018 at 15:15 — user202729
– user202729, Commented Mar 27, 2018 at 15:15
D'oh! I forgot about that.

Ray Salemi
– Ray Salemi

2018-03-27 15:21:30 +00:00
Commented Mar 27, 2018 at 15:21 — Ray Salemi
– Ray Salemi, Commented Mar 27, 2018 at 15:21

Diego Torres Milano · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-27 15:32:12Z

15

You can do this

#! /usr/bin/env python

with open ('run.sh', 'w') as rsh:
    rsh.write('''\
#! /bin/bash
echo "I ran this"
echo "more lines"
''')

edited Mar 27, 2018 at 15:32

answered Mar 27, 2018 at 15:23

Diego Torres Milano

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7 Comments

Ray Salemi Over a year ago

Thanks. I had forgotten about this.

chepner Over a year ago

Mostly a style issue, but I wouldn't bother with the backslash. The bash script won't care about an empty line at the start of the script.

Diego Torres Milano Over a year ago

@chepner the first line might be the shebang and then it matters

chepner Over a year ago

I'd still put the shebang on the first line to avoid the backslash, as it isn't (semantically) relevant to the rest of the content. (Actually, I'd probably not put a shebang at all, if I had any control over the test runner, because it would be running the commands with an explicit shell rather than assuming the test scripts are executable.)

Ray Salemi Over a year ago

That was my edit too. @chepner. Not sure why it was rejected.

|

HIMANSH Raj · Accepted Answer · 2021-07-17 09:36:06Z

0

You Can Use writelines here:

with open ('run.sh', 'w') as rsh:
    rsh.writelines('echo "I ran this"\n')

answered Jul 17, 2021 at 9:36

HIMANSH Raj

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