Running script from python command line

Question

Using Python3.3

Trying to run a script from python command line. Need to run this from python command line instead of windows command line because of some encoding format issue. But I am getting below error:

>>> python Start.py
File "<stdin>", line 1
python Start.py
 ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

I think I am already within Python so the above is invalid. I tried execfile but that doesn't help either.

Can anyone please help?

EDIT

The problem with running the script from python command line is solved. Although that doesn't solve the original encoding issue. See the thread here Changing the preferred encoding for Windows7 command prompt

• sshashank124: You cannot do that from the python command prompt. You either do it from cmd or in python you do: import Start.py but note that the second method won't work if you have if __name__ == '__main__': ...
• Martijn Pieters: Perhaps you want to tell us about your encoding format issue instead? This sounds like an XY problem here.
• Steven Maude: The answers to this question might address what you're asking, but as @MartijnPieters says, you're probably better trying to fix the underlying issue properly.
• Martijn Pieters: @sshashank124: The name is set to __main__ if you use execfile() though. Except that's no longer available in Python 3. Ahem.
• KurzedMetal: Maybe you could use subprocess module specially if you need to provide commandline arguments to your python script.

Answer 1

You are already running Python, so there's no need to run the python command. execfile is gone in Python3, but you can do it like this:

with open("Start.py") as f:
 c = compile(f.read(), "Start.py", 'exec')
 exec(c)

• Martijn Pieters: In which case we'd close the question as a dupe, instead of repeating the highest voted answer here.
• nad: @timgeb what you suggested didn't work. Instead below worked exec(open("./filename").read())
• nad: although that doesn't solve my original encoding problem
• timgeb: @lilyhack Weird, I tested it out in the interpreter. What error did you get?
• nad: @timgeb the python command line keeps asking for more command like this (doesn't execute anything) >>> with open("Start.py") as f: ... c = compile(f.read(), "Start.py", 'exec') ... exec(c) ...

Answer 2

exec(open('Start.py').read(),globals())

• Mogsdad: While this code snippet may solve the question, including an explanation really helps to improve the quality of your post. Remember that you are answering the question for readers in the future, and those people might not know the reasons for your code suggestion. Please also try not to crowd your code with explanatory comments, this reduces the readability of both the code and the explanations!

Answer 3

Try this :

 python "/path/Start.py"

Answer 4

For Windows, we must write

C:\Python31\python.exe test.py> results.txt

// that is from CMD - from the Summersfeld's evergreen "Programming in Python 3 - A Complete intro". And if we have an environment variable for python, we don't even need the C:\Python31\ part just

C:\>python.exe test.py > results.txt