Re: Win32 - how do I execute a shell command?

[Mathias Dahl <brakjoller@hotmail.com>]

Paul Moore <pf_moore@yahoo.co.uk> writes:

> I have a Python script I want to execute and obtaing the stdout. In
> XEmacs, I can do so simply using
> 
>     (shell-command-to-string (expand-file-name "~/fortune.py"))
> 
> This doesn't work in Gnu Emacs, basically because expand-file-name
> returns filenames with *forward* slashes, which the shell doesn't
> like.
> 
> OK, I could do a global replace of / with \, but that seems like a
> hack. Is there a "expand file name in Win32 native format" (ie, with
> backslashes) function?

I have found no such function so I use this:

 (defun slash-to-backslash (text)
   (substitute ?\\ ?/ text))

Also, as Jason tells you, you should either use cmd.exe's
start command, if the .py files is associated with the
correct program, or explicitly start it with the correct
interpreter.

Something like this should work (not tested);

(shell-command-to-string 
  (concat "python " (slash-to-backslash (expand-file-name "~/fortune.py"))))

/Mathias