Long story short: pythonw.exe
does nothing, python.exe
accepts nothing (which one should I use?)
test.py:
print "a"
CMD window:
C:\path>pythonw.exe test.py
<BLANK LINE>
C:\path>
C:\path>python.exe test.py
File "C:\path\test.py", line 7
print "a"
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
C:\path>
Please tell me what I'm doing terrible wrong.
This question is related to
python
python-3.x
I was struggling to get this to work for a while. Once you change the extension to .pyw, make sure that you open properties of the file and direct the "open with" path to pythonw.exe.
In my experience the pythonw.exe is faster at least with using pygame.
See here: http://docs.python.org/using/windows.html
pythonw.exe "This suppresses the terminal window on startup."
To summarize and complement the existing answers:
python.exe
is a console (terminal) application for launching CLI-type scripts.
python.exe
opens a new console window.sys.stdin
, sys.stdout
and sys.stderr
are connected to the console window.Execution is synchronous when launched from a cmd.exe
or PowerShell console window: See eryksun's 1st comment below.
pythonw.exe
is a GUI app for launching GUI/no-UI-at-all scripts.
sys.stdin
, sys.stdout
and sys.stderr
are NOT available.
print()
can cause that to happen (in 3.x, print()
simply has no effect).pythonw.exe yourScript.pyw 1>stdout.txt 2>stderr.txt
cmd /c pythonw.exe yourScript.pyw 1>stdout.txt 2>stderr.txt
) to capture stdout and stderr output in files.print()
is the only reason your script fails silently with pythonw.exe
, and you're not interested in stdout output, use @handle's command from the comments:pythonw.exe yourScript.pyw 1>NUL 2>&1
*.pyw
scripts directly (as opposed to by passing the script file path to pythonw.exe
). See eryksun's 2nd comment and its follow-ups below.You can control which of the executables runs your script by default - such as when opened from Explorer - by choosing the right filename extension:
*.py
files are by default associated (invoked) with python.exe
*.pyw
files are by default associated (invoked) with pythonw.exe
If you're going to call a python script from some other process (say, from the command line), use pythonw.exe
. Otherwise, your user will continuously see a cmd
window launching the python process. It'll still run your script just the same, but it won't intrude on the user experience.
An example might be sending an email; python.exe
will pop up a CLI window, send the email, then close the window. It'll appear as a quick flash, and can be considered somewhat annoying. pythonw.exe
avoids this, but still sends the email.
Source: Stackoverflow.com