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Re: Running programs from the command line in Mathematica

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg90889] Re: Running programs from the command line in Mathematica
• From: John Jowett <John.M.Jowett at gmail.com>
• Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2008 07:53:01 -0400 (EDT)
• References: <g670kr$s30$1@smc.vnet.net> <g6c9fh$c24$1@smc.vnet.net>

I've posted to this effect before, but normally you can capture the
output from terminal commands with ReadList or Import which provide
various possibilities for parsing it.  Try


Import["!dir", "Text"]         (on Windows)

ReadList["!dir", Record]      (on Windows)

Import["!ls", "Lines" ]       (on Unix-like)

ReadList["!ls", Record]       (on Unix-like)

The exclamation mark is essential to distinguish the command from a
file name.

John Jowett


On Jul 25, 12:21 pm, Steven Siew <stevensi... at gmail.com> wrote:
> It seems Run[] does not capture any output from the program run.
>
> <from the online manual>
>
> It is important to realize that Run never =93captures=94 any of the o=
utput
> from an external command. As a result, where this output goes is
> purely determined by your operating system. Similarly, Run does not
> supply input to external commands. This means that the commands can
> get input through any mechanism provided by your operating system.
> Sometimes external commands may be able to access the same input and
> output streams that are used by Mathematica itself. In some cases,
> this may be what you want. But particularly if you are using
> Mathematica with a front end, this can cause considerable trouble.