Problems executing commands with (') character in python

Question

I'm doing a program that copies some files from a music playlist. I execute the command just like this:

command =   'cp "%s" "%s"' % (songPath,plPath)
os.system(command)

The problem is that when I execute that if the song's path has a ' character command can not be executed. It says:

cp: cannot stat `/home/myname/Music/Oasis/(What\'s The Story) Morning Glory/03 Wonderwall.mp3': No such file or directory

I checked the songPath and has no \ character before the ' Does anyone know how to avoid the program adding that \ character?

Thank you in advance!

Why use `cp` through `system` instead of using Python's libraries to copy it? http://stackoverflow.com/questions/123198/how-do-i-copy-a-file-in-python — loganfsmyth, May 02 '13 at 15:53
I think you should accept @mgilson's answer though since that is the answer to the question as you asked it, even if there is a better way. — loganfsmyth, May 03 '13 at 14:50

score 6 · Answer 1 · answered May 02 '13 at 15:52

6

Use subprocess.call instead:

ret_val = subprocess.call(['cp',songPath,plPath])

This avoids the shell so your arguments should be passed the cp in the exact form that you gave them.

answered May 02 '13 at 15:52

mgilson

I have the same problem with subprocess.call, but shutil.copy2(songPath,plPath) solved the problem (thanks to @loganfsmyth) – May 03 '13 at 09:52

1 Answers1