spur 0.2.0

Run commands and manipulate files locally or over SSH using the same interface

To run echo locally:

import spur

shell = spur.LocalShell()
result = shell.run(["echo", "-n", "hello"])
print result.output # prints hello

Executing the same command over SSH uses the same interface – the only difference is how the shell is created:

import spur

shell = spur.SshShell(hostname="localhost", username="bob", password="password1")
result = shell.run(["echo", "-n", "hello"])
print result.output # prints hello

Shell constructors

LocalShell

Takes no arguments:

spur.LocalShell()

SshShell

Requires a hostname and a username. Also requires some combination of a password and private key, as necessary to authenticate:

# Use a password
spur.SshShell(
    hostname="localhost",
    username="bob",
    password="password1"
)
# Use a private key
spur.SshShell(
    hostname="localhost",
    username="bob",
    private_key_file="path/to/private.key"
)
# Use a port other than 22
spur.SshShell(
    hostname="localhost",
    port=50022,
    username="bob",
    password="password1"
)

Shell interface

run(command, cwd, update_env, allow_error, stdout, stderr)

Run a command and wait for it to complete. The command is expected to be a list of strings. Returns an instance of ExecutionResult.

result = shell.run(["echo", "-n", "hello"])
print result.output # prints hello

Note that arguments are passed without any shell expansion. For instance, shell.run(["echo", "$PATH"]) will print the literal string $PATH rather than the value of the environment variable $PATH.

Optional arguments:

• cwd – change the current directory to this value before executing the command.

• update_env – a dict containing environment variables to be set before running the command. If there’s an existing environment variable with the same name, it will be overwritten. Otherwise, it is unchanged.

• allow_error – False by default. If False, an exception is raised if the return code of the command is anything but 0. If True, a result is returned irrespective of return code.

• stdout – if not None, anything the command prints to standard output during its execution will also be written to stdout using stdout.write.

• stderr – if not None, anything the command prints to standard error during its execution will also be written to stderr using stderr.write.

shell.run(*args, **kwargs) should behave similarly to shell.spawn(*args, **kwargs).wait_for_result()

spawn(command, cwd, update_env, allow_error, stdout, stderr)

Behaves the same as run except that spawn immediately returns an object representing the running process.

Process interface

Returned by calls to shell.spawn. Has the following methods:

• is_running() – return True if the process is still running, False otherwise.

• stdin_write(value) – write value to the standard input of the process.

• wait_for_result() – wait for the process to exit, and then return an instance of ExecutionResult. Will raise RunProcessError if the return code is not zero and shell.spawn was not called with allow_error=True.

Classes

ExecutionResult

ExecutionResult has the following properties:

• return_code – the return code of the command

• output – a string containing the result of capturing stdout

• stderr_output – a string containing the result of capturing stdout

It also has the following methods:

• to_error() – return the corresponding RunProcessError. This is useful if you want to conditionally raise RunProcessError, for instance:

result = shell.run(["some-command"], allow_error=True)
if result.return_code > 4:
    raise result.to_error()

RunProcessError

A subclass of RuntimeError with the same properties as ExecutionResult:

• return_code – the return code of the command

• output – a string containing the result of capturing stdout

• stderr_output – a string containing the result of capturing stdout