Flapping Head

I’m using virtualenv and have some python scripts as part of a django project. The scripts need to be run by cron, but have to use the virtualenv.

There’s a few solutions around, but I went with this shell script which changes to the directory it’s in, activates the virtualenv and runs python for the given script with args.

The script looks like:

#!/bin/bash

# Runs python script within virtualenv
# used by cron

cd `dirname $0`
source env/bin/activate
python "${@:1}"

chmod it so it’s executable.

I run it from cron like:

/srv/www/myproject/runscript scripts/test.py arg1 arg2

The test.py script is at /srv/www/myproject/scripts/test.py – i.e. relative to the runscript script.

This is largely a note-to-self, but I hope it helps you, too.