ipython: Can I provide input to a shell command

Question

Can I execute a shell command that requires input in ipython and/or an ipython notebook?

When I execute such a command, I see it\'s prompt, but no apparent way to p

Answer 1

Many programs that require a password provide a variety of ways to prompt the user for it so that jupyter doesn't have to do it for you. The sudo command has a -A option and the SUDO_ASKPASS environmental variable. I've used it like this to use sudo to get permissions for the /var/log/btmp.1 file:

 In [1]: !SUDO_ASKPASS=/usr/bin/ssh-askpass sudo -A lastb -a -f /var/log/btmp.1 | head

Similarly, for your case, ssh has an SSH_ASKPASS environmental variable.

Note that for headless operation of ssh/rsync, you can avoid authentication prompts from a notebook entirely by directly setting up an ssh agent (if it isn't running already) and referring to it with your SSH_AUTH_SOCK variable, like ssh-add does. Or you can use a different program via SSH_ASKPASS which handles authentication in a custom way. See questions like How to automate SSH login with password? - Server Fault for more details, but be careful to not compromise your security especially when trying to automate connections from one server to another.