Why my python script is not printing anything

Question

I have a problem..whenever I am writing any Python script say like this

#!/usr/local/bin/python
print "hello"

Then using

chmod +x a.py

And then write ./a.py then it is not printing anything in the terminal

Moreover whenever I write any comment below the shabang line, it gives me an error saying #: bad interpreter : No such file or directory

but when I run the script like this python a.py it works as usual..

Can someone tell me what's wrong and how to fix this..

I always use "#!/usr/bin/env python", which automatically locates python in your environment. — swstephe
– swstephe, Commented Aug 21, 2015 at 15:18
I have the correct Python path...one more thing..when I open this file in vim, it tells me noeol but while opening other files it is not telling me and hence other files are working properly — Mayukh Sarkar
– Mayukh Sarkar, Commented Aug 21, 2015 at 15:18
I'm fairly certain if your path was correct you wouldn't be receiving this error. — kylieCatt
– kylieCatt, Commented Aug 21, 2015 at 15:21
@martineau it's supposed to be the path to the executable program, which will be run with the script file as its standard input. As you wrote it, it would try to run the directory /usr/local/bin with "python" as an argument — holdenweb
– holdenweb, Commented Aug 21, 2015 at 15:46

holdenweb · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-21 15:24:50Z

6

This is almost certainly because your line ending is a carriage-return/line feed combination - which Windows-style editors will create. Unix regards the LF as the end of the line, so it's looking for an executable called "python\r". When you run it with an explicit call to the interpreter the shebang line is just treated as a comment.

answered Aug 21, 2015 at 15:24

holdenweb

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3 Comments

Mayukh Sarkar Over a year ago

I tried the \r option too..I think that there is some problem with the file..because this error is not present for other Python files..needless to say that this file shows noeol ( no end of line) below while others are not showing that

holdenweb Over a year ago

What do you mean you "tried the \r option too"? Just make sure there are no carriage returns in the file

Serge Ballesta Over a year ago

@holdenweb oups, sorry :-(

tdhster · Accepted Answer · 2021-03-19 09:30:34Z

0

Under linux text replacement fix:

sed -i 's/^ M//g' filename

(note that ^ M is written in linux, press ^ M is carriage return and line feed, the input method is to hold down CTRL + v, release v, press m)

This solve bad endline for shell in first line if error message looks like this:

/usr/bin/python3 ^M: bad interpreter: No such file or directory

answered Mar 19, 2021 at 9:30

tdhster

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