Brant Sears wrote: > Hi. I'm new to Python and I am trying to use the latest release (2.5) on > Windows XP. > > What I want to do is execute a program and have the results of the > execution assigned to a variable. According to the documentation the way > to do this is as follows: > > import commands > x = commands.getstatusoutput('dir') > > This should assign "x" to be the output of the command "dir". However, > when I run this (or any other command), x ends up being: > > (1, "'{' is not recognized as an internal or external command,\noperable > program or batch file.") > > From looking through the documentation, I'm believing that the > implementation of commands.getstatusoutput is actually some multi-step > thing that starts with issuing the bracket character that is being > choked on. This leads me to believe that Python or perhaps just the > commands module is not setup correctly on my computer. > > I installed Python using the Python2-5.msi link that I found at: > http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.5/ > > I left everything the default during installation, so Python was > installed to C:\Python25. The only other thing I did was add this PATH > variable on my computer. > > Any ideas on what I might do to troubleshoot this? > > Thanks! > > Brant Sears
Others have answered your specific question, but on a more general note: If you want directory information use os.listdir or glob.glob instead. No reason to shell out to do a dir. If you were using dir as an example, please disregard. -Larry Bates -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list