Using sherlock to check for plagiarism through python subprocess module

Question

When i write on terminal:

./sherlock *.txt

it works

but when I try to do the same using python subprocess like

import subprocess 
subprocess.call(['./sherlock','*.txt'])


import subprocess
subprocess.call('./sherlock','*.txt',shell=True)

import subprocess
subprocess.call('./sherlock','*.txt',shell=False)

Neither of this is working please help.

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 01 '15 at 07:01

7

Shell expand *, subprocess.call does not. Expand the * yourself using glob.glob.

And beside that, the argument that represent the command to be issued should be a list or a string object (not multiple arguments).

import glob
import subprocess
subprocess.call(['./sherlock'] + glob.glob('*.txt'), shell=False)

answered Feb 01 '15 at 07:01

falsetru

357,413
63
732
636

This is especially true on Windows, where the shell doesn't expand wildcards, so using `shell=True` won't even help there. – kindall Feb 01 '15 at 07:42
you could omit `shell=False`; it is default. – jfs Feb 01 '15 at 13:53

Using sherlock to check for plagiarism through python subprocess module

1 Answers1