How do I search for an executable file using python in linux?

Question

How do I search for an executable file using python in linux? The executable files have no extensions and are in a folder together with files that have different extensions. Thanks

EDIT: What I mean by search is to get the filenames of all the executable files and store them in a list or tuple. Thanks

Exact duplicate of http://superuser.com/questions/38981/how-to-find-the-executable-files-under-a-certain-directory-in-linux — David Wolever, Jan 21 '12 at 23:39
use `subprocess.popen()` with the commands mentioned in the above link. — RanRag, Jan 21 '12 at 23:43
@mikeP What do you mean by search? look at the comment by David. — Johan Lundberg, Jan 21 '12 at 23:44

unutbu · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-22T01:39:30.067

7

To do it in Python:

import os
import stat

executable = stat.S_IEXEC | stat.S_IXGRP | stat.S_IXOTH
for filename in os.listdir('.'):
    if os.path.isfile(filename):
        st = os.stat(filename)
        mode = st.st_mode
        if mode & executable:
            print(filename,oct(mode))

edited Jan 22 '12 at 01:39

answered Jan 21 '12 at 23:50

unutbu

842,883
184
1,785
1,677

1

2 remarks, `S_IEXEC` is a [synonym](https://docs.python.org/3.6/library/stat.html#stat.S_IEXEC) of `S_IXUSR`. Since the OP used `IXGRP` and `IXOTH` I'd advocate using `IXUSR` for consistency. And second, this search for files executable by everyone. Meaning, it could not be executable by yourself, so don't trust on this to believe you can execute it (as I've just seen it done in a colleague's code, code which sent me there ^^) – Vser Nov 22 '19 at 17:25

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 16 '15 at 10:59

Function os.access() is in some cases better than os.stat(), because it check whether the file can be executed by you, according to file owner, group and permissions.

import os

for filename in os.listdir('.'):
    if os.path.isfile(filename) and os.access(filename, os.X_OK):
        print(filename)

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:18

2

If by search you mean to list all the executable files in a directory than use the command from this SuperUser Link.You can use Subprocess module to execute the commands from python code.

import shlex   
executables = shlex.split(r'find /dir/mydir -executable -type f')
output_process = subprocess.Popen(executables,shell=True,stdout=subprocess.PIPE)

edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:18

Community

1
1

answered Jan 21 '12 at 23:49

RanRag

48,359
38
114
167

How do I search for an executable file using python in linux?

3 Answers3