Run multiple scripts.py from a specific /dir/ in loop

Question

I want to make an abstract script, that will activate itself every hour and run all the scripts from the specific directory. It doesn't matter if there's two of them or a dozen.

When I run

import os

for item in os.listdir(r'C:/directory/Desktop'):
     execfile(item)

It says that there's no such file, even though if I list them (with print instead of execfile) I see all of them. I decided to get the exact directory of each of them.

import os

for item in os.listdir(r'C:/directory/Desktop'):
     execfile(r'C:/directory/Desktop/%s'%item)

It stops after running the first script that was found. Let's make an unstoppable while loop then.

import os

script_list = []

for item in os.listdir(r'C:/directory/Desktop'):
    script_list.append(item)

while len(script_list) > 0:
    execfile(r'C:/directory/Desktop/%s'%(script_list.pop()))

How surprised I was when it didn't work either. Once again, only the first script that was found has been executed.

So, the question is, do you guys know how to run all scripts in loop in a specific dir without knowing their names?

In each of these scripts I use

return sys.exit(function)

May this cause this issue?

I tried with subprocess.call(item) and run(item) with no luck.

Answer 1

subprocess.call is the correct way to go here, from my experience. If all you are running is .py files, i think the problem has to do with not having python in your call array. e.g.,

subprocess.call(['c:/path/to/python', script_list.pop()])

And let me second @Chris_Rands here, I strongly prefer this being done as a python module with a marker class. i.e.,

directory
-- __init__.py
-- script1.py
-- script2.py
-- script3.py

with script1.py, script2.py, etc., defining a a run method on a class that subclasses a marker class like Runnable. Then you can use the following code to run all Runnables in a given directory:

module = import_module('directory')
for name, klass in inspect.getmembers(module):
    if name.startswith('__') or not inspect.isclass(klass): continue
    instance = klass()
    run_fn = getattr(instance, 'run', None)
    if run_fn and callable(run_fn):
        run_fn()

Answer 2

I do not have the same issue on my linux FS. Thus I can only try to give you some code to work with:

What about this:

import os
from threading import Thread

path = "folder/path"
for item in os.listdir(path):

    def execFile():
        execfile("{:s}/{:s}".format(path,item))

    thread = Thread(target = execFile)
    thread.start()
    thread.join()