Call Python script from bash with argument

To execute a python script in a bash script you need to call the same command that you would within a terminal. For instance

> python python_script.py var1 var2

To access these variables within python you will need

import sys
print(sys.argv[0]) # prints python_script.py
print(sys.argv[1]) # prints var1
print(sys.argv[2]) # prints var2

Use

python python_script.py filename

and in your Python script

import sys
print sys.argv[1]

Beside sys.argv, also take a look at the argparse module, which helps define options and arguments for scripts.

The argparse module makes it easy to write user-friendly command-line interfaces.