How to start a program with Python?

Question

I thougt this would be very easy like:

open(r"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\Firefox.exe")

But nothing happens. How to do this? Thanks in advance.

You should accept the answer that seems best. If more than one answer is good and right, you can still up-vote both of them. — Daniel Stutzbach
– Daniel Stutzbach, Commented Apr 23, 2010 at 12:31
WHichever one works better for you. If you just need to execute a command and wait until it's done, use call. If you need to get output from the command, feed it input, or have it run while your program continues (i.e. in parallel), use Popen. — Mike DeSimone
– Mike DeSimone, Commented Apr 23, 2010 at 12:32

krawyoti · Accepted Answer · 2010-04-23 12:17:59Z

13

In general you can do that using subprocess.call

>>> from subprocess import call
>>> call(r"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\Firefox.exe")

But if all you want to do is open a page in a browser you can do:

>>> import webbrowser
>>> webbrowser.open('http://stackoverflow.com/')
True

answered Apr 23, 2010 at 12:17

krawyoti

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Comments

YOU · Accepted Answer · 2010-04-23 12:15:10Z

7

You are opening the file to read its content, instead try subprocess module

import subprocess
subprocess.Popen([r"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\Firefox.exe"])

answered Apr 23, 2010 at 12:15

YOU

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Daren Thomas · Accepted Answer · 2010-04-23 12:15:09Z

2

try os.system() and read up on alternatives in the subprocess module.

answered Apr 23, 2010 at 12:15

Daren Thomas

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