python subprocess.call arguments issue

Question

I am writing a simple python script under Linux to do a batch of concurrent single pings to hosts on my subnet using subprocess.

Manually the command works: ping -c 1 192.168.68.1

The script::

#!/usr/bin/python
from subprocess import call

path = "ping"
flags = "-c 1 "

for i in range(1,3):
    ip_addr = "192.168.68." + str(i)
    args = flags + ip_addr

    print "doing: {} {}".format(path, args)        
    call([path, args])

Commenting out call outputs the expected:

doing: ping -c 1 192.168.68.1
doing: ping -c 1 192.168.68.2

With call(), the script seems to call ping but with unknown arguments. Output as follows:

doing: ping -c 1 192.168.68.1
Usage: ping [-aAbBdDfhLnOqrRUvV64] [-c count] [-i interval] [-I interface]
        [-m mark] [-M pmtudisc_option] [-l preload] [-p pattern] [-Q tos]
        [-s packetsize] [-S sndbuf] [-t ttl] [-T timestamp_option]
        [-w deadline] [-W timeout] [hop1 ...] destination
Usage: ping -6 [-aAbBdDfhLnOqrRUvV] [-c count] [-i interval] [-I interface]
         [-l preload] [-m mark] [-M pmtudisc_option]
         [-N nodeinfo_option] [-p pattern] [-Q tclass] [-s packetsize]
         [-S sndbuf] [-t ttl] [-T timestamp_option] [-w deadline]
         [-W timeout] destination
doing: ping -c 1 192.168.68.2
Usage: ping [-aAbBdDfhLnOqrRUvV64] [-c count] [-i interval] [-I interface]
        [-m mark] [-M pmtudisc_option] [-l preload] [-p pattern] [-Q tos]
        [-s packetsize] [-S sndbuf] [-t ttl] [-T timestamp_option]
        [-w deadline] [-W timeout] [hop1 ...] destination
Usage: ping -6 [-aAbBdDfhLnOqrRUvV] [-c count] [-i interval] [-I interface]
         [-l preload] [-m mark] [-M pmtudisc_option]
         [-N nodeinfo_option] [-p pattern] [-Q tclass] [-s packetsize]
         [-S sndbuf] [-t ttl] [-T timestamp_option] [-w deadline]
         [-W timeout] destination

It seems ping is being called twice for each iteration with different args to what I expect. I note the -6 argument ping complains about.
I would appreciate any help, particularly with regard to using call() properly.

Update:
Added bash script I'm attempting to emulate:

#!/bin/bash
for ip in $(seq 1 2); do
    ping -c 1 192.168.68.$ip &
done

Answer 1

The arguments passed to the function call should each be a single element in a list, as such:

call(['ping','-c','1','192.168.68.2'])

I could not reproduce the 'double printing' in my environment.