Auto Refresh Text from OS Command with Python

There are times when you may need to constantly monitor the output of a command line program or script in your Python application. This can be achieved by using the tKinter library to create a GUI application that automatically refreshes the text based on the output of an OS command.

Here’s a simple example of how to achieve this using Python:

import tkinter as tk
import subprocess

def get_output():
    result = subprocess.run(["ls", "-l"], capture_output=True, text=True)
    return result.stdout

def update_text():
    text.delete("1.0", "end")
    text.insert("1.0", get_output())
    root.after(1000, update_text)

root = tk.Tk()
text = tk.Text(root)
text.pack()
update_text()
root.mainloop()
  

In this example, we create a tKinter window and a Text widget to display the output of the command. We then define a function get_output that runs the ls -l command and returns the output. The update_text function is used to update the text widget with the output of the command and is called every one second using the after method of the tKinter window.

You can easily modify this code to run any command and display its output in real-time. This can be useful for monitoring log files, keeping track of server status, or any other task that requires constant monitoring of the output of a command line program.

Using tKinter to create a GUI application that automatically refreshes the text based on the output of an OS command is a powerful tool for Python developers. It allows for the creation of dynamic and interactive applications that can be used for a wide range of tasks.