How to recognize whether a script is running on a tty?

Question

I would like my script to act differently in an interactive shell session and when running with redirected stdout (for example when piped to some other command).

How do I recognize which of these two happen in a Python script?

Example of such behavior in existing program: grep --color=auto highlights matches when running in interactive shell, but doesn't when piped to something else.

jdizzle · Accepted Answer · 2009-05-13 19:51:46Z

94

import os, sys
os.isatty(sys.stdout.fileno())

or

sys.stdout.isatty()

edited May 13, 2009 at 19:51

answered May 13, 2009 at 15:24

jdizzle

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2 Comments

sergzach Over a year ago

Notice: this is a test for stdout. To check stdin use stdin accordingly.

Flimm Over a year ago

To check for stderr, use sys.stderr.isatty() accordingly.

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