Executing a C program in python?

Question

I have this C program, at least I think it is (files: spa.c, spa.h). Is there any way I can execute this script from Python WITHOUT passing extra arguments to the Python interpreter (if not, what would the arguments be?) Update: Thanks for your replies. The source code can be found at http://www.nrel.gov/midc/spa/#register (Please do not be scared by the 'register' in the url, if you fill in the form, you can immediately download the files (no validation mails, etc) I will try your suggestions and report back with the results. Update 2: I compiled the source code using gcc, but now it gives me a permission denied when trying to call(), even when running python as root (im on Ubuntu 10:10). Update 3 [Errno 8] Exec format error Update 4 Ok, I got it working. Program outputs values using printf: ``` >>> call(['/path']) Julian Day: 2452930.312847 L: 2.401826e+01 degrees B: -1.011219e-04 degrees R: 0.996542 AU H: 11.105902 degrees Delta Psi: -3.998404e-03 degrees Delta Epsilon: 1.666568e-0…

Accepted Answer

There is no such thing as a C script. If you meant a C program you need to compile `spa.c` and `spa.h` into an executable before running it.

If you use GCC in Linux or Mac OS X:

```
$ gcc -Wall spa.c -o spa
```

Will get you an executable named `spa`.

After that, you can run `spa` program from your Python script with:

```
from subprocess import call
call(["./spa", "args", "to", "spa"])
```

Executing a C program in python?

Solution

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