Open Multiple applications using Python

Question

I want to start multiple applications using python script, basically there will be one text file which contains the paths of executable files and I want to open all of those applications one by one. I tried it by using subprocess.Popen but it opens only first application from text file and even it executes only when text file has path of only one application, if I try to save multiple paths in text file then python script shows an error: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified I tried with readlines method too, but it didn't worked

Below is the code I'm trying to execute

with open(path) as file:
   for x in file:
      subprocess.Popen(x)


Paths.txt file: 
C:\Windows\notepad.exe 
C:\Program Files\Sublime Text\sublime_text.exe

I think it should be `subprocess.Popen([x])` it you don't want argument parsing — Thomas Weller, Feb 06 '22 at 21:22
@ThomasWeller its still giving same `error: hp, ht, pid, tid = _winapi.CreateProcess(executable, args, FileNotFoundError: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified` — Rushi, Feb 06 '22 at 21:28
if I keep only notepad.exe in path.txt file then it executes normally but when I add another application (cmd.exe) path on second line then it gives `FileNotFound` error — Rushi, Feb 06 '22 at 21:37
If I add two lines then code does not work, but if I give path of any single executable file then code works. It just dont work with multiple paths — Rushi, Feb 06 '22 at 21:43

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 06 '22 at 21:24

0

When you pass a simple string to Popen, it tries to parse it as a command line. Thus, it's going to try to execute the program C:\Program and pass as parameters Files/Sublime, then Text\sublime_text.exe. You can see how that would be suboptimal

To get around this parsing, you need to pass the arguments as a list:

with open(path) as file:
   for x in file:
      subprocess.Popen([x])

answered Feb 06 '22 at 21:24

Tim Roberts

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Thank you for the answer @Tim but, I think `\n newline` is the problem here – Rushi Feb 06 '22 at 21:38
If you think that's the case, why haven't you tried `x.strip()` to get rid of them? – Tim Roberts Feb 06 '22 at 21:56

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 06 '22 at 21:52

The following works for me.

import subprocess
import time

with open('path.txt') as file:
   for x in file:
      subprocess.Popen(x.strip())

time.sleep(10)

# Content of path.txt:
#
# C:\Windows\notepad.exe 
# C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\notepad++.exe
# C:\Program Files (x86)\Simple Sudoku\simplesudoku.exe

Open Multiple applications using Python

2 Answers2