Calling an external command from Python

This example will show you how to call an external command from Unix shell or Windows command prompt in a python script.

To call a external command from Unix shell or Windows command prompt in Python, we can use the built-in subprocess.run() method which is available in subprocess module.

import subprocess
subprocess.run(["ls", "-l"])

For old versions, we can use the call() method.

import subprocess
subprocess.call(["ls", "-l"])

The subprocess module allows us to spawn new processes and connect to their input/output/error pipes, and obtain their return codes.