Python Subprocess POpen Directory Handling

Question

I am very new to python and still trying to learn the craft as best as I can on my own. I started to get into automation recently and one of the not so sexy things I'm trying to automate is the automation of Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer. All it does is check for the patches that are on the machine and which ones are missing, simple right?

Anyways, the part that I'm stuck on is that I'm trying to execute the application to run the scan on multiple hostnames located in a text file. The command that I'm using looks like this:

subprocess.Popen(['mbsacli','/listfile','"C:\Users\me\Desktop\test.txt"', '/n', 'os+iis+sql+password'])

The part that is getting an issue is with the way python is handling the directory path. What I mean by that is that it tells me the following:

Error: Cannot open file C:\Users\me\Desktop        est.txt

The giant blank space between Desktop and "est.txt" is whats the issue, it should be test.txt first of all but its not handling the slashes() cleanly.

Any help would be very helpful, thank you.

EDIT

So far I've tried the following:

subprocess.Popen(['mbsacli','/listfile','r C:\Users\dxd0857\Desktop\test.txt', '/n', 'os+iis+sql+password'])

subprocess.Popen(['mbsacli','/listfile','C:\\Users\\dxd0857\Desktop\\test.txt', '/n', 'os+iis+sql+password'])

subprocess.Popen(['mbsacli','/listfile','r C:\\Users\\dxd0857\\Desktop\\test.txt', '/n', 'os+iis+sql+password'])

the result is still the same error:

Error: Cannot open file r C:\Users\me\Desktop      est.txt

It should be r'C:\Users\dxd0857\Desktop\test.txt'. The 'r' prefix is not part of the string. It tells the compiler how to interpret the string literal. — Eryk Sun
– Eryk Sun, Commented Dec 3, 2015 at 15:43
Thank you, this worked perfectly. I didn't realize it was supposed to be outside the the quotes. — bloodstorm17
– bloodstorm17, Commented Dec 3, 2015 at 15:53
Perhaps accept the answer then (or post one of your own and accept that) so that this question no longer comes up as unresolved. — tripleee
– tripleee, Commented Dec 3, 2015 at 17:24

plaes · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-04 08:21:15Z

3

What happens is that the \ character is parsed as special character, where \t means tab.

Therefore you have to either use \\ for backslashes:

subprocess.Popen(['mbsacli', 
                  '/listfile', 'C:\\Users\\me\\Desktop\\test.txt', 
                  '/n', 'os+iis+sql+password'])

...or use raw string instead (thanks @tripleee, @eryksun):

subprocess.Popen(['mbsacli', 
                  '/listfile', r'C:\Users\me\Desktop\test.txt', 
                  '/n', 'os+iis+sql+password'])

edited Dec 4, 2015 at 8:21

answered Dec 3, 2015 at 14:57

plaes

32.9k11 gold badges95 silver badges89 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

4 Comments

tripleee Over a year ago

The double quotes inside single quotes don't look sane, either (but then this is Windows, right?)

tripleee Over a year ago

A somewhat more elegant solution is to use a raw string; r'C:\Users\me\Desktop\test.txt' where the r before the opening quote is significant.

Eryk Sun Over a year ago

@tripleee, subprocess.list2cmdline will escape the quotes when creating the command line, e.g. as r'\"C:\Users\me\Desktop\test.txt\"'. If mbsacli uses the MS C runtime, the escaped quotes will be treated as literally part of the string passed in the argv array. This is probably an error, unless mbsacli strips the quotes from its command-line argument.

bloodstorm17 Over a year ago

Thanks for the assists everyone and I tried using both the suggestions of raw input and the \\ but it still doesn't give the correct results. The issue is still present. Very odd.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Python Subprocess POpen Directory Handling

1 Answer 1

4 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

4 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related