How to execute a file within the Python interpreter?

I'm trying to execute a file with Python commands from within the interpreter.

EDIT: I'm trying to use variables and settings from that file, not to invoke a separate process.

Several ways.

From the shell

python someFile.py

From inside IDLE, hit F5.

If you're typing interactively, try this: (Python 2 only!)

>>> variables= {}
>>> execfile( "someFile.py", variables )
>>> print variables # globals from the someFile module

For Python3, use:

>>> exec(open("filename.py").read())

For Python 2:

>>> execfile('filename.py')

For Python 3:

>>> exec(open("filename.py").read())
# or
>>> from pathlib import Path
>>> exec(Path("filename.py").read_text())

See the documentation. If you are using Python 3.0, see this question.

See answer by @S.Lott for an example of how you access globals from filename.py after executing it.

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