subprocess error in python

Question

I am trying to run a praat file from python itself with subprocess but python(subprocess) can't seem to find the directory. I don't understand why since when I run the command in terminal, it works perfectly fine. Cant anyone guide me to where I am going wrong? This is the subprocess code

import silex
import subprocess as sb
cmd_line = raw_input()
args = shlex.split(cmd_line)
p = sb.Popen(args)

When I run it with the input

Praat /Users/admirmonteiro/tmp/tmp.praat

this is the error that I get :

Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "<input>", line 1, in <module>
 File "/Users/admirmonteiro/anaconda/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 710, in __init__
 errread, errwrite)
 File "/Users/admirmonteiro/anaconda/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 1335, in _execute_child
 raise child_exception
OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory

As mentioned, I run the commands and they run fine in the terminal. I have also tried to run subprocess.call but the same error occurs. I have also tried with with shell=True as an argument but that also outputs the same error. Please Help !

• Kurt Stutsman: What does which Praat return when run from the shell manually?
• Aboogie: If I type it in by itself, it opens the app. If I open it with the file as I mentioned, it runs the file which returns another file. Which if I do that in terminal it works.
• Aboogie: Also when I run subprocess.call([Praat"]) , I got the error : call(["Praat"],shell=True) /bin/sh: Praat: command not found 127 this makes no sense because when I run Praat in terminal, it works. I am confused .
• Fredrik: Try with the full path to Praat
• Fredrik: Also your script don't make any sense, you read a command from the command line and run it? Why not just run the command to begin with instead

Answer 1

Type the following in the shell to get the full path of the Praatapplication.

whereis Praat

Then use the full path in you python program.

• jfs: note: type Praat (whence, where, which) or command -v Praat might be more useful here, to find the full path to the executable. See What is the unix command to find out what executable file corresponds to a given command?
• jfs: related: Why not use "which"? What to use then?
• Sci Prog: According to man pages, whereis checks the standard binary directories (...) printing out the paths of any it finds, which will locate a program in the user's path. Therefore which is probably a better choice, since the OP said he was able to run it in the command line.
• jfs: Read the links I've provided (really, the answers there are very thorough). Use type Praat if you run the command interactively in a shell or command -v Praat if it is in a script. It is more likely that type will show the actual executable that will be run than whereis.