How can I call 'git pull' from within Python?

Question

Using the github webhooks, I would like to be able to pull any changes to a remote development server. At the moment, when in the appropriate directory, git pull

Answer 1

This is a sample recipe, I've been using in one of my projects. Agreed that there are multiple ways to do this though. :)

>>> import subprocess, shlex
>>> git_cmd = 'git status'
>>> kwargs = {}
>>> kwargs['stdout'] = subprocess.PIPE
>>> kwargs['stderr'] = subprocess.PIPE
>>> proc = subprocess.Popen(shlex.split(git_cmd), **kwargs)
>>> (stdout_str, stderr_str) = proc.communicate()
>>> return_code = proc.wait()

>>> print return_code
0

>>> print stdout_str
# On branch dev
# Untracked files:
#   (use "git add ..." to include in what will be committed)
#
#   file1
#   file2
nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)

>>> print stderr_str

The problem with your code was, you were not passing an array for subprocess.Popen() and hence was trying to run a single binary called git pull. Instead it needs to execute the binary git with the first argument being pull and so on.