CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonwindowslinuxshebang
dsimcha
dsimcha

Reputation: 68740

Shebang Notation: Python Scripts on Windows and Linux?

I have some small utility scripts written in Python that I want to be usable on both Windows and Linux. I want to avoid having to explicitly invoke the Python interpreter. Is there an easy way to point shebang notation to the correct locations on both Windows and Linux? If not, is there another way to allow implicit invocation of the Python interpreter on both Windows and Linux without having to modify the script when transferring between operating systems?

Edit: The shebang support on Windows is provided Cygwin, but I want to use the native Windows Python interpreter on Windows, not the Cygwin one.

Edit # 2: It appears that shebang notation overrides file associations in Cygwin terminals. I guess I could just uninstall Cygwin Python and symlink /usr/bin/python to Windows-native Python.

Upvotes: 110

Views: 123953

Answers (7)

Yonatan Reicher
Yonatan Reicher

Reputation: 98

I was looking for a solution for this, I had the py launcher installed with Python 3.11 but I still could not execute scripts starting with #!/usr/bin/env python3

I turns out there is a simple fix for this. I added a shortcut to my Python 3.11 and called it python3.exe. Then I put it inside a folder in my path. To find your python installations and their locations you can run py -0p

Hope this helps someone!

Upvotes: 0

Brad
Brad

Reputation: 950

Short answer: The easiest way is to install git for windows wich comes with GitBash. Then add shebang lines in your scripts to indicate they should be run with python when executed. #!/usr/bin/env python

More info: Unlike Cygwin, git bash uses your native windows applications and lets you use bash scripts without any configuration.

It will automatically treat any file with a shebang line as executable the same way Linux shells do. eg: #!/usr/bin/env php or #!/usr/bin/env node or any other application you want will work as long as you add the paths to your windows ENV path.

You can edit env vars in windows by hitting start and typing env should be the first option.

Git bash also installs git and hooks it up with a credentials manager for you and makes it super easy to sign into 2fa-enabled svn services and a ton of other handy developer features.

Git bash is IMO a must on every developer's machine.

Another option: Install WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) which will work the same. WSL also lets you install native Linux versions of all your command line applications if you prefer.

Linux binaries will take precedence over windows ones if installed but you can still choose to run the windows version of commands any time you want by specifically adding .exe on the end.

Upvotes: 4

Eryk Sun
Eryk Sun

Reputation: 34260

Read up on the Python Launcher for Windows in the docs, which was initially described in PEP 397. It lets you define custom shebang configurations in "py.ini" (e.g. to use pypy), and out of the box you can use virtual shebangs such as #!/usr/bin/env python3, or shebangs with real paths such as #!"C:\Python33\python.exe". (Quoting is required for paths containing spaces.) You can also add command-line options to a shebang. For example, the following shebang adds the option to enter interactive mode after the script terminates: #!/usr/bin/python3 -i.

The installer associates .py (console) and .pyw (GUI) script file types with the respectively named launchers, py.exe and pyw.exe, in order to enable shebang support for scripts in Windows. For an all-users installation, the launchers are installed to the Windows folder (i.e. %SystemRoot%). For a per-user installation, you may need to manually add the installation directory to PATH in order to use py.exe in the shell (*). Then from the command line you can run Python via py -2, py -3, py -2.6, py -3.3-32 (32-bit), and so on. The launcher is handy when combined with -m to run a module as a script using a particular version of the interpreter, e.g. py -3 -m pip install.

(*) The new installer in 3.5+ defaults to "%LocalAppData%\Programs\Python\Launcher" for a per-user installation of the launcher, instead of installing it beside "python.exe", and it automatically adds this directory to PATH.

Upvotes: 70

John Doe
John Doe

Reputation: 31

sorry for open old topic.

I create one file py.cmd and place it in the C:\Windows\System32 folder

py.bat:

@(
@set /p shebang=
)<%1
@set shebang=%shebang:#! =%
@%shebang% %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9

py.bat file explain:

  1. Get the first line from *.py file
  2. Remove shebang characters "#! "
  3. Run python file using shebang python path

All windows python script must start with shebang line as the first line in the code:

#! c:\Python27\python.exe

or

#! c:\Python37\python.exe

Then run it: cmd> py SomePyFile.py param1 param1 paramX

Upvotes: 1

Wai Yip Tung
Wai Yip Tung

Reputation: 18754

Install pywin32. One of the nice thing is it setups the file association of *.py to the python interpreter.

Upvotes: 1

Spencer Rathbun
Spencer Rathbun

Reputation: 14900

Unless you are using cygwin, windows has no shebang support. However, when you install python, it add as file association for .py files. If you put just the name of your script on the command line, or double click it in windows explorer, then it will run through python.

What I do is include a #!/usr/bin/env python shebang in my scripts. This allows for shebang support on linux. If you run it on a windows machine with python installed, then the file association should be there, and it will run as well.

Upvotes: 45

Callie J
Callie J

Reputation: 31296

Not with shebang ... but you might be able to set up a file association, see this SO question which deals with Perl and the associated answers which will also be pertinent as there's known problems with Windows and stdin/out redirection...

Upvotes: 0

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