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using Python to send subprocess commands with escape characters

I'm using a python script which uses subprocess to pass a commmand to the terminal. Part of the command that I'm passing involves paths which contain parentheses. Python handles strings with parentheses fine, but of course terminal does not handle these without escape characters.
I'm trying to pass variables to a command line program by feeding a string into subprocess, but here's simple example to reproduce the error:
import subprocess
path = '/home/user/Desktop/directory(2018)'
command_str = 'rmdir ' + path
print (subprocess.run(command_str))
which gives me this error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "ex.py", line 7, in <module>
print (subprocess.run(command_str))
File "/usr/lib/python3.6/subprocess.py", line 403, in run
with Popen(*popenargs, **kwargs) as process:
File "/usr/lib/python3.6/subprocess.py", line 709, in __init__
restore_signals, start_new_session)
File "/usr/lib/python3.6/subprocess.py", line 1344, in _execute_child
raise child_exception_type(errno_num, err_msg, err_filename)
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'rmdir /home/user/Desktop/directory(2018)': 'rmdir /home/user/Desktop/directory(2018)'
When I write it directly into the terminal with escape characters it works great.
$ rmdir /home/user/Desktop/directory\(2018\)
But in Python when I try to add escape characters to the strings before calling subprocess:
command_str = command_str.replace('(','\(')
command_str = command_str.replace(')','\)')
I get the same error as before because, unlike print, the subprocess string adds a second escape character which gets passed to the terminal.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "ex.py", line 7, in <module>
print (subprocess.run(command_str))
File "/usr/lib/python3.6/subprocess.py", line 403, in run
with Popen(*popenargs, **kwargs) as process:
File "/usr/lib/python3.6/subprocess.py", line 709, in __init__
restore_signals, start_new_session)
File "/usr/lib/python3.6/subprocess.py", line 1344, in _execute_child
raise child_exception_type(errno_num, err_msg, err_filename)
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'rmdir /home/user/Desktop/directory\\(2018\\)': 'rmdir /home/user/Desktop/directory\\(2018\\)'
Is there a way to fix this particular error? Either by doing something different with replace or subprocess.run? (I'm not looking for a better way to remove directories.) Thanks.

Python implements rm and rmdir so no need to call a process. In general, if you want to skip shell processing on a command in subprocess, don't use the shell.
import subprocess
path = '/home/user/Desktop/directory(2018)'
command = ['rmdir', path]
print (subprocess.run(command, shell=False))
The shell breaks a command line into a list of arguments. You can build that list yourself and skip the shell completely.

Do not use subprocess, and you don't have to worry about shell escaping. Use the high-level file operation APIs provided in stdlib's shutil:
import shutil
shutil.rmtree('/home/user/Desktop/directory(2018)')

Calling Popen in Python on a MAC - Error can not find file

When I try to shell out of my Python 3.51 program to run the Popen command I get the following errors. Yet when I copy the exact string I'm passing to Popen to the Terminal command line it works fine and opens the file in Adobe Reader which is my default app for the .pdf files.
Here is the Code:
finalCall = r'open /Users/gbarnabic/Documents/1111/combined.pdf'
print(finalCall)
pid_id = subprocess.Popen(finalCall).pid
Here is the error:
open /Users/gbarnabic/Documents/1111/combined.pdf
Exception in Tkinter callback
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.5/lib/python3.5/tkinter/init.py", line 1549, in call
return self.func(*args)
File "pdfcomb2.py", line 212, in change_dir
self.openPDF(outFileName, pageNum)
File "pdfcomb2.py", line 426, in openPDF
subprocess.run(finalCall)
File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.5/lib/python3.5/subprocess.py", line 696, in run
with Popen(*popenargs, **kwargs) as process:
File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.5/lib/python3.5/subprocess.py", line 950, in init
restore_signals, start_new_session)
File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.5/lib/python3.5/subprocess.py", line 1544, in _execute_child
raise child_exception_type(errno_num, err_msg)
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'open /Users/gb/Documents/1111/combined.pdf'
Georges-MBP:filepicktest gb$ open /Users/gb/Documents/1111/combined.pdf
Georges-MBP:filepicktest gb$

With Popen you need to set shell=True to pass command as a string or split command in a list of arguments. Could be done with shlex
import shlex
import subprocess
subprocess.Popen(shlex.split('open ....'))
You could check example in documentation:
https://docs.python.org/2/library/subprocess.html#subprocess.Popen
So the error here means that Python try to run file with name open /Users/gb/Documents/1111/combined.pdf. Obviously it doesn't exist

python exception error subprocess file missing - but what file?

i have a code running on python 2.7.3 (windows) and i try to run it on python 2.7.8(windows) and get the following error:
main : INFO ** Starting Main **
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\wamp\www\prenderer\src\main.py", line 82, in <module>
nuke_process = launch_nuke()
File "C:\wamp\www\prenderer\src\main.py", line 31, in launch_nuke
query = subprocess.Popen(r"query process", stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
File "F:\python27\lib\subprocess.py", line 710, in __init__
errread, errwrite)
File "F:\python27\lib\subprocess.py", line 958, in _execute_child
startupinfo)
WindowsError: [Error 2] The system cannot find the file specified
>>>
what is wrong?

Pass shell=True argument:
query = subprocess.Popen(r"query process", stdout=subprocess.PIPE, shell=True)
or pass the command line argument as a list:
query = subprocess.Popen(["query", "process"], stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
Otherwise query process is recognized as a program instead of query.

Python subprocess.Popen Not finding Executable

I'm having issues with Python finding an available Executable on my Linux machine. My default PATH includes this Executable (svnlook) but when I run the python script the below function fails to find executable. Any ideas on how to fix this?
def command_output(cmd):
child = subprocess.Popen(cmd.split(), stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
output = child.communicate()[0]
return output, child.returncode
def get_author():
cmd = "svnlook author %s %s %s" % (svn_opt, svn_txn, svn_repo)
author, return_code = command_output(cmd)
return author.strip()
Error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/user/app/csvn/data/repositories/repo/hooks/pre-commit", line 82, in <module>
author = get_author()
File "/home/user/app/csvn/data/repositories/repo/hooks/pre-commit", line 53, in get_author
author, return_code = command_output(cmd)
File "/home/user/app/csvn/data/repositories/repo/hooks/pre-commit", line 36, in command_output
child = subprocess.Popen(cmd.split(), stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
File "/home/user/app/activepython-2.7.2.5_x86_64/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 679, in __init__
errread, errwrite)
File "/home/user/app/activepython-2.7.2.5_x86_64/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 1228, in _execute_child
raise child_exception
OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory

You probably want to provide the full path to the executable, e.g. /usr/bin/svnlook or /usr/local/bin/svnlook instead of just svnlook.
See this answer to a related question for details.

Try running it from the console. Make sure the permissions/executability is correct. Try os.system().

Compiling and Executing Java file in python

how can I open an java file in python?, i've search over the net and found this:
import os.path, subprocess
from subprocess import STDOUT, PIPE
def compile_java (java_file):
subprocess.check_call(['javac', java_file])
def execute_java (java_file):
cmd=['java', java_file]
proc=subprocess.Popen(cmd, stdout = PIPE, stderr = STDOUT)
input = subprocess.Popen(cmd, stdin = PIPE)
print(proc.stdout.read())
compile_java("CsMain.java")
execute_java("CsMain")
but then I got this error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Python33\lib\subprocess.py", line 1106, in _execute_child
startupinfo)
FileNotFoundError: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified
During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\casestudy\opener.py", line 13, in <module>
compile_java("CsMain.java")
File "C:\casestudy\opener.py", line 5, in compile_java
subprocess.check_call(['javac', java_file])
File "C:\Python33\lib\subprocess.py", line 539, in check_call
retcode = call(*popenargs, **kwargs)
File "C:\Python33\lib\subprocess.py", line 520, in call
with Popen(*popenargs, **kwargs) as p:
File "C:\Python33\lib\subprocess.py", line 820, in __init__
restore_signals, start_new_session)
File "C:\Python33\lib\subprocess.py", line 1112, in _execute_child
raise WindowsError(*e.args)
FileNotFoundError: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified
>>>
the python file and java file is in the same folder, and I am using Python 3.3.2, how can I resolve this? or do you guys have another way on doing this?, any answer is appreciated thanks!

I think it isn't recognizing the javac command. Try manually running the command and if javac isn't a recognized command, register it in your PATH variable and try again.
Or you could just try typing the full pathname to the Java directory for javac and java.

you need to add path to your java file name. like this:
compile_java("C:\\path\to\this\CsMain.java")