Linux ignore the quotes from a command launched in my python script [duplicate]

Question

I am trying to execute the following command from my python script, using subprocess :

date -s "25 DEC 2021 15:30:00"

This is how i am executing the command :

command_date = ("/usr/bin/date -s \"{0}\"".format(config_date))
print("command date : ",command_date)

proc = subprocess.Popen(command_date.split(), stdout = subprocess.PIPE, encoding = "utf8")
result_date = proc.stdout.read()
print("\nNew system date : ", result_date)

But i am getting the following error :

/usr/bin/date: extra operand '2021'

After some tests directly by the terminal, the error apprear if i am using the command without the quotes around the date string. But my variable command_date is well constructed (see print : /usr/bin/date -s "25 DEC 2021 15:30:00")

Do you know why my quotes are ignored and how to fix it ?

Use list instead of formatted string to pass args stackoverflow.com/questions/14928860/… — lllrnr101
– lllrnr101, Commented Feb 17, 2021 at 14:36
@lllrnr101 If you think this question has an answer somewhere else in this site - flag it as duplicate instead of posting a link as a comment... — Tomerikoo
– Tomerikoo, Commented Feb 17, 2021 at 14:43
@Tomerikoo This is what i got : ['/usr/bin/date', '-s', '"25', 'DEC', '2021', '15:30:00"']. I understand why it wasn't working now, thanks — molik
– molik, Commented Feb 17, 2021 at 14:49

FlyingTeller · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-17 14:35:19Z

1

The issue comes from calling split on the string, which splits the string at whitespaces into seperate arguments for date. Try to build the list of command + arguments yourself:

command = ["/usr/bin/date", "-s", "{0}".format(config_date)]
proc = subprocess.Popen(command, stdout = subprocess.PIPE, encoding = "utf8")
result_date = proc.stdout.read()
print("\nNew system date : ", result_date)

answered Feb 17, 2021 at 14:35

FlyingTeller

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