The paths of the files I want to process contain parentheses in them.
path = "/dir/file (with parentheses).txt"
I'm trying to process them in Python as follows:
subprocess.call("./process %s" % path, shell=True)
However, I get the following error
/bin/sh: 1: Syntax error: "(" unexpected
How can I pass the correct string to process the proper path?
Try this
subprocess.call('./process "%s"' % path, shell=True)
I guess problem is more with space in file name. File names with spaces in them should be enclosed in quotes like this ./process "foo bar.txt" or escaped like this ./process foo\ bar.txt.
Don't use shell=True. It's trouble-prone (as in the OP) and enables shell injection attacks.
Do it like this:
subprocess.call(["./process", path])
If you insist on using shell=True, read the Security Considerations in the python documentation, and make sure you use shlex.quote to correctly escape all metacharacters.
