How do I execute a program from Python? os.system fails due to spaces in path

Question

subprocess.call will avoid problems with having to deal with quoting conventions of various shells. It accepts a list, rather than a string, so arguments are more easily delimited. i.e.

import subprocess
subprocess.call(['C:\\Temp\\a b c\\Notepad.exe', 'C:\\test.txt'])

Here's a different way of doing it.

If you're using Windows the following acts like double-clicking the file in Explorer, or giving the file name as an argument to the DOS "start" command: the file is opened with whatever application (if any) its extension is associated with.

filepath = 'textfile.txt'
import os
os.startfile(filepath)

Example:

import os
os.startfile('textfile.txt')

This will open textfile.txt with Notepad if Notepad is associated with .txt files.

The outermost quotes are consumed by Python itself, and the Windows shell doesn't see it. As mentioned above, Windows only understands double-quotes. Python will convert forward-slashed to backslashes on Windows, so you can use

os.system('"C://Temp/a b c/Notepad.exe"')

The ' is consumed by Python, which then passes "C://Temp/a b c/Notepad.exe" (as a Windows path, no double-backslashes needed) to CMD.EXE

At least in Windows 7 and Python 3.1, os.system in Windows wants the command line double-quoted if there are spaces in path to the command. For example:

  TheCommand = '\"\"C:\\Temp\\a b c\\Notepad.exe\"\"'
  os.system(TheCommand)

A real-world example that was stumping me was cloning a drive in VirtualBox. The subprocess.call solution above didn't work because of some access rights issue, but when I double-quoted the command, os.system became happy:

  TheCommand = '\"\"C:\\Program Files\\Sun\\VirtualBox\\VBoxManage.exe\" ' \
                 + ' clonehd \"' + OrigFile + '\" \"' + NewFile + '\"\"'
  os.system(TheCommand)

For python >= 3.5 subprocess.run should be used in place of subprocess.call

https://docs.python.org/3/library/subprocess.html#older-high-level-api

import subprocess
subprocess.run(['notepad.exe', 'test.txt'])

import win32api # if active state python is installed or install pywin32 package seperately

try: win32api.WinExec('NOTEPAD.exe') # Works seamlessly
except: pass

I suspect it's the same problem as when you use shortcuts in Windows... Try this:

import os;
os.system("\"C:\\Temp\\a b c\\Notepad.exe\" C:\\test.txt");