Executing command line programs from within python

Question

I m building a web application that will is going to manipulate  pad  mix  merge etc  sound files and I ve found that sox does exactly what I want  Sox is a linux command line program and I m feeling a little uncomfortable with having the python web app starting new sox processes on my server on a per request basis    Example   import os os system  sox input wav -b 24 output aiff rate -v -L -b 90 48k     This whole setup seems a little unstable to me   So my question is  what s the best practice for running command line programs from within  a python  or any scripting language  web app   Message queues would be one thing to implement in order to get around the whole request response cycle  But is there other ways to make these things more elegant

User · Answer

This whole setup seems a little unstable to me.

Talk to the ffmpegx folks about having a GUI front-end over a command-line backend. It doesn't seem to bother them.

Indeed, I submit that a GUI (or web) front-end over a command-line backend is actually more stable, since you have a very, very clean interface between GUI and command. The command can evolve at a different pace from the web, as long as the command-line options are compatible, you have no possibility of breakage.

User · Answer

If you re concerned about server performance then look at capping the number of running sox processes  If the cap has been hit you can always cache the request and inform the user when it s finished in whichever way suits your application   Alternatively  have the n worker scripts on other machines that pull requests from the db and call sox  and then push the resulting output file to where it needs to be

User · Answer

This whole setup seems a little unstable to me.

Talk to the ffmpegx folks about having a GUI front-end over a command-line backend. It doesn't seem to bother them.

Indeed, I submit that a GUI (or web) front-end over a command-line backend is actually more stable, since you have a very, very clean interface between GUI and command. The command can evolve at a different pace from the web, as long as the command-line options are compatible, you have no possibility of breakage.

User · Answer

I am not familiar with sox  but instead of making repeated calls to the program as a command line  is it possible to set it up as a service and connect to it for requests   You can take a look at the connection interface such as sqlite for inspiration

User · Answer

If you re concerned about server performance then look at capping the number of running sox processes  If the cap has been hit you can always cache the request and inform the user when it s finished in whichever way suits your application   Alternatively  have the n worker scripts on other machines that pull requests from the db and call sox  and then push the resulting output file to where it needs to be

User · Answer

The subprocess module is the preferred way of running other programs from Python -- much more flexible and nicer to use than os system    import subprocess  subprocess check output   ls    -l       All that is technically needed    print subprocess check output   ls    -l

User · Answer

I am not familiar with sox  but instead of making repeated calls to the program as a command line  is it possible to set it up as a service and connect to it for requests   You can take a look at the connection interface such as sqlite for inspiration

User · Answer

This whole setup seems a little unstable to me.

Talk to the ffmpegx folks about having a GUI front-end over a command-line backend. It doesn't seem to bother them.

Indeed, I submit that a GUI (or web) front-end over a command-line backend is actually more stable, since you have a very, very clean interface between GUI and command. The command can evolve at a different pace from the web, as long as the command-line options are compatible, you have no possibility of breakage.

User · Answer

The subprocess module is the preferred way of running other programs from Python -- much more flexible and nicer to use than os system    import subprocess  subprocess check output   ls    -l       All that is technically needed    print subprocess check output   ls    -l

User · Answer

I am not familiar with sox  but instead of making repeated calls to the program as a command line  is it possible to set it up as a service and connect to it for requests   You can take a look at the connection interface such as sqlite for inspiration

User · Answer

I am not familiar with sox  but instead of making repeated calls to the program as a command line  is it possible to set it up as a service and connect to it for requests   You can take a look at the connection interface such as sqlite for inspiration

User · Answer

The subprocess module is the preferred way of running other programs from Python -- much more flexible and nicer to use than os system    import subprocess  subprocess check output   ls    -l       All that is technically needed    print subprocess check output   ls    -l

User · Answer

This whole setup seems a little unstable to me.

Talk to the ffmpegx folks about having a GUI front-end over a command-line backend. It doesn't seem to bother them.

Indeed, I submit that a GUI (or web) front-end over a command-line backend is actually more stable, since you have a very, very clean interface between GUI and command. The command can evolve at a different pace from the web, as long as the command-line options are compatible, you have no possibility of breakage.

User · Answer

The subprocess module is the preferred way of running other programs from Python -- much more flexible and nicer to use than os system    import subprocess  subprocess check output   ls    -l       All that is technically needed    print subprocess check output   ls    -l

User · Answer

If you re concerned about server performance then look at capping the number of running sox processes  If the cap has been hit you can always cache the request and inform the user when it s finished in whichever way suits your application   Alternatively  have the n worker scripts on other machines that pull requests from the db and call sox  and then push the resulting output file to where it needs to be

User · Answer

If you re concerned about server performance then look at capping the number of running sox processes  If the cap has been hit you can always cache the request and inform the user when it s finished in whichever way suits your application   Alternatively  have the n worker scripts on other machines that pull requests from the db and call sox  and then push the resulting output file to where it needs to be

[python] Executing command line programs from within python

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