I have been trying to run a command and parse the output in golang. Here is a sample of what I am trying to do:
package main
import (
"fmt"
"os/exec"
)
func main() {
out,err := exec.Command("ls -ltr").Output()
if err != nil {
fmt.Println("Error: %s", err)
}
fmt.Printf("%s",out)
}
Now, when I am trying to run "ls -ltr", I get this error:
Error: %s exec: "ls -ltr": executable file not found in $PATH
So, basically go is looking for whole "ls -ltr" in PATH. And it's not there obviously. Is there any way I can pass a flag to any argument?TIA.
You pass arguments to the program by passing more arguments to the function - it's variadic:
out,err := exec.Command("ls","-ltr").Output()
https://golang.org/pkg/os/exec/#Command
This is a pretty common convention with exec-style functions which you will see in most languages. The other common pattern is builders.
Sometimes the layout of arguments you need to pass won't be known at compile-time (though it's not a good idea to send arbitrary commands to the system - stay safe!). If you want to pass an unknown number of arguments, you can use an array with some special syntax:
// Populate myArguments however you like
myArguments := []string{"bar","baz"}
// Pass myArguments with "..." to use variadic behaviour
out,err := exec.Command("foo", myArguments...).Output()