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Using Python for Scripting

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Re: Using Python for Scripting

#11

Post by albertoCaroM »

Rucadi wrote: post #8
_jzlw wrote: post #3

How do you handle packages? I want scripts to a be a single file with a shebang, not a repo with a requirements.txt that I need to run in a venv. To me, this is the biggest blocker to using Python for any non-trivial scripting (which is precisely the kind where I wouldn't want to use bash), but I'd like to know how others deal with it. C# scripts let you reference packages in a comment at the top of the file, for exa…

Nix allows you to do this with any language and required dependency: https://wiki.nixos.org/wiki/Nix-shell_shebang

Whoa! This is a revelation. I already loved Nix and used nix-shell extensively, but this is the missing piece: fully reproducible Python scripts without compromise.

Re: Using Python for Scripting

#13

Post by jollyllama »

_jzlw wrote: post #5
eternityforest wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What can you do with bash that isn't in the stdlib of python? Generally the only nontrivial scripting I ever do is associated with a larger project, so I often already have a pyproject.toml and a UV environment, and I just add the dependencies to the dev group.

Well, that's kind of what I mean. For scripts in a python project, you can freely use whatever packages you need. But for one-off scripts, if you need bs4 or something, you're screwed. Either your script now has external dependencies or it requires special tooling. It just feels strange that C# of all languages is now a better scripting tool than Python, at least out of the box. I did notice uv has exactly the featur…

I don't understand. To return to GP's point, what can you do in bash that you can't do in Python? Said in another way, what does bash offer that you would need to tackle with a dependency in Python? My understanding is that there is no such thing, and accordingly, you can still end up with something that is better than bash if you just use Python and call out to other tools with subprocess.

Re: Using Python for Scripting

#14

Post by paulddraper »

_jzlw wrote: post #3

How do you handle packages? I want scripts to a be a single file with a shebang, not a repo with a requirements.txt that I need to run in a venv. To me, this is the biggest blocker to using Python for any non-trivial scripting (which is precisely the kind where I wouldn't want to use bash), but I'd like to know how others deal with it. C# scripts let you reference packages in a comment at the top of the file, for exa…

> How do you handle packages?

The same way you handle them with bash?

Install them?

What are we talking about here?

Re: Using Python for Scripting

#15

Post by a-dub »

_jzlw wrote: post #3

How do you handle packages? I want scripts to a be a single file with a shebang, not a repo with a requirements.txt that I need to run in a venv. To me, this is the biggest blocker to using Python for any non-trivial scripting (which is precisely the kind where I wouldn't want to use bash), but I'd like to know how others deal with it. C# scripts let you reference packages in a comment at the top of the file, for exa…

what can you do with bash that you cannot do with the python standard library and shelling out?

Re: Using Python for Scripting

#16

Post by sevensor »

The Python stdlib does not get enough credit. People complain about things like how its http client is dated and slow, but it’s pretty amazing that it’s just right there if you need it, no external dependencies needed. And it’s sitting right next to difflib, graphlib, pathlib, struct, glob, tkinter, and dozens of others. Sure, every one of these is limited individually, but those limitations are stable and well understood!

Re: Using Python for Scripting

#17

Post by rjmill »

Odd, I don't see any mention of subprocess.run, the workhorse of python scripting.

Quick rundown for the unfamiliar:

Give it a command as a list of strings (e.g., subprocess.run(["echo", "foo"]).)

It takes a bunch of flags, but the most useful (but not immediately obvious) ones are:

  check=True: Raise an error if the command fails
  capture_output=True: Captures stdout/stderr on the CompletedProcess
  text=True: Automatically convert the stdout/stderr bytes to strings
By default, subprocess.run will print the stdout/stderr to the script's output (like bash, basically), so I only bother with capture_output if I need information in the output for a later step.

Re: Using Python for Scripting

#18

Post by tayo42 »

Pretty much anything longer then a throwaway one liner I write in python.

Would be cool if python had a pipe operator though.

The back ticks in ruby is pretty ergonomic too. Wish python had a simpler way to run commands. Kind of tedious to look up subprocess run arguments and also break things up into arrays.

Re: Using Python for Scripting

#20

Post by presbyterian »

chillaranand wrote: post #7
_jzlw wrote: post #3

How do you handle packages? I want scripts to a be a single file with a shebang, not a repo with a requirements.txt that I need to run in a venv. To me, this is the biggest blocker to using Python for any non-trivial scripting (which is precisely the kind where I wouldn't want to use bash), but I'd like to know how others deal with it. C# scripts let you reference packages in a comment at the top of the file, for exa…

You can specify requirements at the top of file and uv can run the script after automatically installing the dependencies. https://avilpage.com/2025/04/learn-python-uv-in-100-seconds....

As someone who writes a lot of python, I love uv, but isn't on nearly every system like python is, which is one of the arguments for using python here in the first place
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