How to use 2 shells for a python script

Question

I have a python project that I use curses. I would like to open another shell for piping some of my outputs, how shall I achieve this?

Clarification:

I am writing a TUI using Curses module of python. Therefore my initial bash shell is a curses window.

I would like to have live updated variables in another bash shell if that's possible for debugging purposes.

What I am asking is, if there is a way to make a python program open another shell and pipe the standard output to that shell, instead of the default shell which in my case is the window for the curses environment.

Could you pleas elaborate what you want to do? It is a bit unclear — kvantour, Oct 26 '20 at 10:10
Do you mean you want 2 Terminals open with a `curses`-controlled display running in each? Or one `curses` window and another Terminal which just shows scrolled text? Or something else? — Mark Setchell, Oct 26 '20 at 11:10
I mean one terminal using curses another terminal just shows scrolled text as in your second option. — Alperen Keleş, Oct 26 '20 at 11:32

Mark Setchell · Accepted Answer · 2020-10-26T15:09:20.123

A couple of possibilities.

Start a second Terminal window, and in there run:

tty
/dev/ttys000       # sample output - note down for next command

In the first Terminal where you run curses, do:

echo "Hi" > /dev/ttys000

Alternative method... make a fifo with:

mkfifo fifo

In a second, new Terminal, run:

while : ; do cat fifo; done

In the first Terminal, run:

echo "Hi" > fifo

Alternative method... tail a file.

In your curses Terminal, append messages to a file:

echo "Message" >> log.txt

In your other Terminal, follow the tail of the log file:

tail -f log.txt

How to use 2 shells for a python script

1 Answers1