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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)')

subprocess error message:[Errno 2] in _execute_child raise child_exception

In my program I call the command:
command_two = 'sfit4Layer0.py -bv5 -fs'
subprocess.call(command_two.split(), shell=False)
I am using PyCharm and I get the error message:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "part2test.py", line 5, in <module>
subprocess.call(command_two.split(), shell=False) #writes the summary file
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 522, in call
return Popen(*popenargs, **kwargs).wait()
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 710, in __init__
errread, errwrite)
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 1335, in _execute_child
raise child_exception
OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
When walking through my program, it never gets to the program I want it to sfit4Layer0.py, it is getting stuck in subprocess but I am not sure why. Changing the shell=True doesn't do anything helpful either - I don't get these error messages but it does not execute my code properly. Any suggestions would be helpful.
My bash profile:
PATH="~/bin:/usr/bin:${PATH}"
export PATH PYTHONPATH="/Users/nataliekille/Documents/sfit4/pbin/Layer0:/Users/nataliekille/Documents/sfit4/pbin/Layer1:/Users/nataliekille/Documents/sfit4/pbin/ModLib:/Users/nataliekille/Documents/sfit4/SpectralDB"
export PYTHONPATH
PATH=${PATH}:${PYTHONPATH}
export PATH

You've missed an important part of the subprocess documentation. "If passing a single string [at the command, rather than a list of strings], either shell must be True (see below) or else the string must simply name the program to be executed without specifying any arguments."
So the kernel is compaining because there is not executable with the name 'sfit4Layer0.py -bv5 -fs'. Should work if you replace the string with (for example) 'sfit4Layer0.py -bv5 -fs'.split(), or ['sfit4Layer0.py', '-bv5', '-fs'].

Python: How to pass this chain of commands at once to subprocess.call()

I'm trying to pass these below chained commands at once to the subprocess.But it's throwing error.
Command to pass:
"C:\MyScript\run.bat" -I"C:\MyScript" -- "C:\MyScript\MyScript1.pl" "file_name"
where, file_name is a variable which holds the name of a file.
Code:
cmd = '"C:\MyScript\run.bat" -I"C:\MyScript" -- "C:\MyScript\MyScript1.pl"' + " " + filename
subprocess.call(cmd)
Error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "c:\Test\WWX_2.py", line 28, in
<module>
subprocess.call(cmd)
File "C:\Python26\lib\subprocess.py", line 444, in call
return Popen(*popenargs, **kwargs).wait()
File "C:\Python26\lib\subprocess.py", line 595, in __init__
errread, errwrite)
File "C:\Python26\lib\subprocess.py", line 821, in _execute_child
startupinfo)
WindowsError: [Error 2] The system cannot find the file specified

Use raw string literals to prevent \r from being interpreted as a carriage return. The space-only arguments are also passed as actual command line arguments, but you probably don't want that to happen, so remove them.
cmd = [r'C:\MyScript\run.bat', r'-I"C:\MyScript"', '--', r'C:\MyScript\MyScript1.pl', filename]
subprocess.call(cmd)

You have to escape all the backslashes in the path, i.e.
C:\\whatever\\batch.bat

Understand Python error message and resolve

I am not a Python programmer, but the make script is using some Python. And here I got this error message, I can see a stack trace. But how to track the problem from here?
/usr/bin/python2.7 ./config/pythonpath.py -I./config ./config/expandlibs_exec.py --depend .deps/libjs_static.a.pp --target libjs_static.a --extract -- /usr/local/bin/ar cr libjs_static.a bignum-dtoa.o bignum.o cached-powers.o diy-fp.o double-conversion.o fast-dtoa.o fixed-dtoa.o strtod.o jsalloc.o jsanalyze.o jsapi.o jsarray.o jsatom.o jsbool.o jsclone.o jscntxt.o jscompartment.o jsdate.o jsdbgapi.o jsdhash.o jsdtoa.o jsexn.o jsfriendapi.o jsfun.o jsgc.o jscrashreport.o jsinfer.o jsinterp.o jsiter.o jslog2.o jsmath.o jsmemorymetrics.o jsnativestack.o jsnum.o jsobj.o json.o jsonparser.o jsopcode.o jsproxy.o jsprf.o jsprobes.o jspropertycache.o jspropertytree.o jsreflect.o jsscope.o jsscript.o jsstr.o jstypedarray.o jsutil.o jswatchpoint.o jsweakmap.o jsworkers.o jswrapper.o jsxml.o prmjtime.o sharkctl.o ArgumentsObject.o ScopeObject.o Debugger.o GlobalObject.o ObjectImpl.o Stack.o String.o BytecodeCompiler.o BytecodeEmitter.o FoldConstants.o NameFunctions.o ParallelArray.o ParseMaps.o ParseNode.o Parser.o SPSProfiler.o TokenStream.o TestingFunctions.o Profilers.o LifoAlloc.o Eval.o MapObject.o RegExpObject.o RegExpStatics.o RegExp.o Marking.o Memory.o Statistics.o StoreBuffer.o StringBuffer.o Unicode.o Xdr.o ExecutableAllocator.o PageBlock.o YarrInterpreter.o YarrPattern.o YarrSyntaxChecker.o YarrCanonicalizeUCS2.o ExecutableAllocatorPosix.o OSAllocatorPosix.o jsperf.o pm_stub.o HashFunctions.o SHA1.o
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "./config/pythonpath.py", line 56, in <module>
main(sys.argv[1:])
File "./config/pythonpath.py", line 48, in main
execfile(script, frozenglobals)
File "./config/expandlibs_exec.py", line 322, in <module>
main()
File "./config/expandlibs_exec.py", line 311, in main
ret = subprocess.call(args)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 493, in call
return Popen(*popenargs, **kwargs).wait()
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 679, in __init__
errread, errwrite)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 1249, in _execute_child
raise child_exception
OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
make[1]: *** [libjs_static.a] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/priv

The first step would be to look into the source code; Python prints the file name and line number: File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 1249
When you look there, you'll see some code. The next step would then be to find out where each variable is assigned (i.e. who sets child_exception) and then what is necessary to execute this code until you come to a place where the code works with something that you provided (this follows the assumption that the Python library is probably correct and you made a mistake).
In your specific case, the problem is most likely that args[0] contains a path that point to a file / executable which doesn't exist.
So check where ./config/expandlibs_exec.py, line 311 gets args from and what's inside args[0]

How do I run a command with string formatting?

I am using the subprocess module to run a command in python. But the problem is that I also want to include a string (for a file name) in the command.
An example of what I want to do:
from subprocess import call
command = "cd/DirectoryName"
call = [(command)]
In this specific example I want DirectoryName to be a variable determined by the user.
What I have tried to no avail:
Desktop=raw_input()
cmd="'cd %s'(Desktop/)"
call([cmd])
Here's the error I get when I try to run these commands in the python shell.
Chicken='Chicken'
command = 'say %s' % (Chicken)
print command
say Chicken
call([command])
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Applications/WingIDE.app/Contents/MacOS/src/debug/tserver/_sandbox.py", line 1, in <module>
# Used internally for debug sandbox under external interpreter
File "/Library/Frameworks/EPD64.framework/Versions/7.2/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 493, in call
return Popen(*popenargs, **kwargs).wait()
File "/Library/Frameworks/EPD64.framework/Versions/7.2/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 679, in __init__
errread, errwrite)
File "/Library/Frameworks/EPD64.framework/Versions/7.2/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 1228, in _execute_child
raise child_exception
OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Just tried this and it made the shell crash.
Chicken="Chicken"
print Chicken
Chicken
call[("say %s" % (Chicken)]

That's not how string interpolation works.
cmd='cd %s' % (Desktop,)

First off,
cmd="'cd %s'(Desktop/)"
Doesn't seem like it would "printf" the %s.
Maybe
cmd="'cd %s/'%(Desktop)"
But I still don't know if that will interpolate since it's inside a string can using the "call" function and a python command -- wouldn't that call it on the command line?