Invoking External Programs
In this article, you will learn how to execute an external application - for example, run a command line, execute scripts, or interact with the operating system.
The behaviour and syntax will differ a little depending on your operating system — Windows/Linux/macOS. The examples documented here are on a Windows machine.
1. os.execute() to execute external programs
Using os.execute()
allows you to execute external programs. This code snippet shows some of the syntax you can use:
2. io.popen() opens a command line process
io.popen()
is helpful in that it allows you to open a command line process and read and write to it. This shows an example of reading into a directory using a command:
For more details, see io.popen().