how to make a python file run without py extension

Question

I had a small python script that takes input from the command line arguments and done some operations using the inputs taken and display the result

Below is the working example code

some_file.py

import sys

arguments = sys.argv
first_name  = sys.argv[1]
second_name = sys.argv[2]

print "Hello {0} {1} !!!!".format(first_name,second_name)

Now i am executing this as

python some_file.py Steve jobs

Result :

Hello Steve Jobs !!!!

Now what all i want is, i don't want to use python command before file name and extension of python file name, that is i want to run the file as a command tool as below

some_file  Steve Jobs

so what to do in order to run the python file as above ?

Solution 1

Unix-like OS solution: the first line of the file should be #!/usr/bin/python (or wherever the python interpreter is) and chmod u+x the script. Run it with ./some_file parameters.

If you want to launch it with some_file parameters simply make a link to the script in a directory which is already included into your PATH: sudo ln -s some_file /usr/bin.

So, here's the full procedure:

blackbear@blackbear-laptop:~$ cat > hw
#!/usr/bin/python

print "Hello World!"

blackbear@blackbear-laptop:~$ chmod u+x hw
blackbear@blackbear-laptop:~$ sudo ln -s hw /usr/bin
blackbear@blackbear-laptop:~$ hw
Hello World!
blackbear@blackbear-laptop:~$ 

Solution 2

make a symbolic link

ln -s some_file.py some_file

now you can type your cmd like this:

some_file Steve Jobs

Comments

[Shiva Krishna Bavandla]

Exactly i had added path at the start of the script and made it executable with chmod u +x. and after that when i run liek above it displayed ""bash: ./some_file: No such file or directory""

[user4815162342]

The shebang line must contain the full path to the Python interpreter, or a program of known path that will find it, such as #!/usr/bin/env python. Also, the shebang-based solutions will work only on Unix-like OS-es, not on Windows.

[Shiva Krishna Bavandla]

Also i dont want to use even "./" before some_file, i want to use it as a tool for example if type top in linux it will show some details right, i mean that

[NickUpson]

chmod u+x some_file no space between 'u' and '+'

[NickUpson]

to avoid the "./" you would need to add the directory containing the file to your search path $PATH

[Shiva Krishna Bavandla]

k what i had done is created a .pth file in site directories and given the directory path in it, but still it snot working, so can u please point me in to the right direction ?

[Shiva Krishna Bavandla]

oh its really wierd, i performed the same steps as above, but still its complaining as ""hw: command not found ""

[BlackBear]

@shivakrishna does the link (i.e. /usr/bin/hw) exist?

[Shiva Krishna Bavandla]

but i think this is temporary solution, because if we copy the file at some other location then i hope we need to run the above command in order to run the file without py extension right ?. what i am searching and talking about is it doesn't wherever the py file exists, but when we run the file like some_file(without extension) it should work

[Shiva Krishna Bavandla]

so if we place the file permanently in python path whether we able to access the file in the above manner ?

[TangZ]

if u r using Linux, create a file emacs -nw some_file, add this at the beginning #!/bin/env python, and chmod +x some_file, run it! I just tried, it works.

[Ciasto piekarz]

i think it doesn't work on bash shell, any idea how would that work on OS x in bash shell?

[cjs]

The link works fine in Bash whether on Linux or MacOS. However, you may have to mark the original file as executable: chmod +x some_file.py. Also, if the link is not in a directory in your path you may have to specify a path to it, e.g., ./some_file if the link is in the current directory.