run linux grep command from python subprocess

Question

I know there are posts already on how to use subprocess in python to run linux commands but I just cant get the syntax correct for this one. please help. This is the command I need to run...

/sbin/ifconfig eth1 | grep "inet addr" | awk -F: '{print $2}' | awk '{print $1}'

Ok this is what I have at the moment that gives a syntax error...

import subprocess
self.ip = subprocess.Popen([/sbin/ifconfig eth1 | grep "inet addr" | awk -F: '{print $2}' | awk '{print $1}'])

Any help greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

This has been gone over many, many times before; but here is a simple pure Python replacement for the inefficient postprocessing.

from subprocess import Popen, PIPE
eth1 = subprocess.Popen(['/sbin/ifconfig', 'eth1'], stdout=PIPE)
out, err = eth1.communicate()
for line in out.split('\n'):
    line = line.lstrip()
    if line.startswith('inet addr:'):
        ip = line.split()[1][5:]