To follow up with a working example of python via headless blender on the command line, the following 4 lines interactively get me an image of a sphere saved to /tmp/.png

./blender -b --python-console

>>> import bpy

>>> bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_uv_sphere_add(size=3.0,location=(0,0,0))

>>> bpy.ops.render.render(write_still=True)

Great, thanks!

Does this work on a Mac and/or Linux?

I just tested it on Ubuntu, it worked.

My point in the post was more that the embedded Python in Blender isn't really a "binding", it forces you to use Blender's 'internal' Python installation, so you must reinstall all the packages that you need specifically for Blender's Python (I don't know how, but I think there is a way). Also, this makes it impossible to use virtualenv, I guess (not sure).

In short, it would be cool if it just "worked from Python".

I ran this on a Mac, should work on Linux as well. Since it may not be obvious, the "blender" command line executable is located within the regular Mac OS X Application bundle for blender that you would download from the web:

/Applications/Blender/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/blender