Let's say I have a C/C++ file named userfile.c.

Using Python, how can I invoke the local gcc compiler so that the file is compiled and an executable is made? More specifically, I would like to provide some input (stdin) via some file input.txt and I want to save the standard output into another file called output.txt. I saw some documentation that I will need to use subprocess, but I'm not sure how to call that and how to provide custom input.

A simple solution will be as given below:

import subprocessif subprocess.call(["gcc", "test.c"]) == 0:subprocess.call(["./a.out <input.txt >output.txt"], shell=True)
else: print "Compilation errors"

2 caveats:

1. I am hardcoding stuff. You may want to parameterize and all that.
2. Setting shell to True, is a security risk, per Python documentation.