I am trying to execute a curl command within a python script.
If I do it in the terminal, it looks like this:
curl -X POST -d '{"nw_src": "10.0.0.1/32", "nw_dst": "10.0.0.2/32", "nw_proto": "ICMP", "actions": "ALLOW", "priority": "10"}'
I've seen recommendations to use pycurl, but I couldn't figure out how to apply it to mine.
I tried using:
subprocess.call([
'curl',
'-X',
'POST',
'-d',
flow_x,
'
])
and it works, but is there a better way?
8 Answers
Don't!
I know, that's the "answer" nobody wants. But if something's worth doing, it's worth doing right, right?
This seeming like a good idea probably stems from a fairly wide misconception that shell commands such as curl are anything other than programs themselves.
So what you're asking is "how do I run this other program, from within my program, just to make a measly little web request?". That's crazy, there's got to be a better way right?
Uxio's answer works, sure. But it hardly looks very Pythonic, does it? That's a lot of work just for one little request. Python's supposed to be about flying! Anyone writing that is probably wishing they just call'd curl!
it works, but is there a better way?
Yes, there is a better way!
Requests: HTTP for Humans
Things shouldn’t be this way. Not in Python.
Let's GET this page:
import requests
res = requests.get(')
That's it, really! You then have the raw res.text, or res.json() output, the res.headers, etc.
You can see the docs (linked above) for details of setting all the options, since I imagine OP has moved on by now, and you - the reader now - likely need different ones.
But, for example, it's as simple as:
url = '
payload = { 'key' : 'val' }
headers = {}
res = requests.post(url, data=payload, headers=headers)
You can even use a nice Python dict to supply the query string in a GET request with params={}.
Simple and elegant. Keep calm, and fly on.
You could use urllib as @roippi said:
import urllib2
data = '{"nw_src": "10.0.0.1/32", "nw_dst": "10.0.0.2/32", "nw_proto": "ICMP", "actions": "ALLOW", "priority": "10"}'
url = '
req = urllib2.Request(url, data, {'Content-Type': 'application/json'})
f = urllib2.urlopen(req)
for x in f:
print(x)
f.close()
Use this tool (hosted here for free) to convert your curl command to equivalent Python requests code:
Example: This,
curl ' -H 'Connection: keep-alive' -H 'Cache-Control: max-age=0' -H 'Origin: -H 'Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate, br' -H 'Cookie: SESSID=ABCDEF' --data-binary 'Pathfinder' --compressed
Gets converted neatly to:
import requests
cookies = {
'SESSID': 'ABCDEF',
}
headers = {
'Connection': 'keep-alive',
'Cache-Control': 'max-age=0',
'Origin': '
'Accept-Encoding': 'gzip, deflate, br',
}
data = 'Pathfinder'
response = requests.post(' headers=headers, cookies=cookies, data=data)
If you are not tweaking the curl command too much you can also go and call the curl command directly
import shlex
cmd = '''curl -X POST -d '{"nw_src": "10.0.0.1/32", "nw_dst": "10.0.0.2/32", "nw_proto": "ICMP", "actions": "ALLOW", "priority": "10"}'
args = shlex.split(cmd)
process = subprocess.Popen(args, shell=False, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
stdout, stderr = process.communicate()
Try with subprocess
CurlUrl="curl ' -H 'Connection: keep-alive' -H 'Cache-
Control: max-age=0' -H 'Origin: -H 'Accept-Encoding:
gzip, deflate, br' -H 'Cookie: SESSID=ABCDEF' --data-binary 'Pathfinder' --
compressed"
Use getstatusoutput to store the results
status, output = subprocess.getstatusoutput(CurlUrl)
You can use below code snippet
import shlex
import subprocess
import json
def call_curl(curl):
args = shlex.split(curl)
process = subprocess.Popen(args, shell=False, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
stdout, stderr = process.communicate()
return json.loads(stdout.decode('utf-8'))
if __name__ == '__main__':
curl = '''curl - X
POST - d
'{"nw_src": "10.0.0.1/32", "nw_dst": "10.0.0.2/32", "nw_proto": "ICMP", "actions": "ALLOW", "priority": "10"}'
http: // localhost: 8080 / firewall / rules / 0000000000000001 '''
output = call_curl(curl)
print(output)
Rephrasing one of the answers in this post, instead of using cmd.split(). Try to use:
import shlex
args = shlex.split(cmd)
Then feed args to subprocess.Popen.
Check this doc for more info:
Inside the subprocess module, there is one more option called run use it
from subprocess import run
run(curl -X POST -d '{"nw_src": "10.0.0.1/32", "nw_dst": "10.0.0.2/32", "nw_proto": "ICMP", "actions": "ALLOW", "priority": "10"}' )
