Using a Helper Script

Executing shef.shef_parser.main() from the command line can be tricky since you need to know the exact location of the package in your installation.

Inspecting/Updating Execution Path

The easiest way is to use a helper script that is placed somewhere referenced by your PATH environment variable. You can inspect and set this variable from the command line in the following manner.

Windows

  • From Command Prompt

    • inspect: echo %Path%

    • set: set Path=%Path%;<another_directory>

  • From PowerShell

    • inspect: $Env:Path or $Env:Path -split ';'

    • set: $Env:Path += <another_directory>

  • From Windows UI

    • type envvar in the Windows search bar and open “Edit environment variables for your account”

      Windows UI
      _images/windows-env-vars.png

Linux

  • inspect: echo $PATH

  • set: export PATH=$PATH:<another_directory>

Helper Script

Once you know which directory to put your helper script in, create a helper script file as follows:

  • Windows

    run_shef_parser.bat

    @python -c "import sys; import shef; import subprocess; subprocess.run([sys.executable, shef.shef_parser.__file__]+sys.argv[1:], check=True)" %*
  • Linux

    run_shef_parser

    #!/usr/bin/env bash
python -c "import sys; import shef; import subprocess; subprocess.run([sys.executable, shef.shef_parser.__file__]+sys.argv[1:], check=True)" "$*"

    Don’t forget to make the script executable:

    chmod u+x /path/to/run_shef_parser

Note that you may need to have your script use python3 -c instead of python -c, depending on your python installation.

Now from any command line you can simply execute run_shef_parser <options> to execute the SHEF parser.