calling python interpreter with .py file as command line argument not working

Question

I have set my path environment variable to include the python interpreter as well as my "python_scripts" folder. I can call the python interpreter or any .py files located in my "python_scripts" folder individually from anywhere on my machine as follows:

C:\> python.exe
Python 3.6.5 |Anaconda, Inc.| (default, Mar 29 2018, 13:32:41) [MSC v.1900 64 
bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>

or

C:\> test_code.py

and they both work fine. However, when I call the python interpreter followed by the script name:

C:\> python.exe test_code.py

it returns with the following error unless I'm located in my "python_scripts" folder:

python: can't open file 'test_code.py': [Errno 2] No such file or directory

Why would this be happening?

Answer 1

If you use C:\\> python.exe test_code.py it will look in your current directory for test_code.py . If you pass an argument to python.exe it needs to be a valid absolute or relative path to a file that exists.

Answer 2

That means that the file is on your Windows %PATH% variable. When you do python.exe , it looks in all sorts of places. For example, if your PATH looked like: C:\\;"C:\\Program Files\\Python 3\\";C:\\Users\\user\\python_scripts , it would try C:\\python.exe , then try C:\\Program Files\\Python 3\\python.exe and find Python.

When you do test_code.py , it finds it as C:\\Users\\user\\python_scripts\\test_code.py (For example).

When you call python.exe , it just reads the filename and does not try to resolve the path.

Python uses a different path for importing, which can be seen as sys.path .

You can extend this using a .pth file in python\\Lib\\site-packages .

For example, if you add a user_pth.pth file with this content:

C:\Users\user\python_scripts\

Then you can do import test_code from any file.

So, you can invoke pythons importer by running your code as a module:

python.exe -m test_code

Answer 3

you should give python.exe the full path to your script python.exe. c:\\test_code.py

Answer 4

I copied my environment variable as
C:\\Python\\Python38;C:\\Users\\ronegi\\Desktop\\PERSONAL\\EDUREKA PYTHON

Now when I open Python.exe & after prompt I type as shown below
Hello_world.py
It throws error below:

I tried giving all tries.