Python scp copy file with spaces in filename

Question

I'm trying to copy files in local network with scp. It's working well with filenames without spaces, but it crash with. I've tried to replace " " with "\ " as this exemple, but it don't work. Here is my code:

def connection(locals):
         a = (int(re.search(br'(\d+)%$', locals['child'].after).group(1)))
         print a
         perc = (Decimal(a)/100)
         print (type(perc)), perc
         while gtk.events_pending():
             gtk.main_iteration()
         FileCopy.pbar.set_text("Copy of the file in the Pi...   " + str(a) + "%")
         while gtk.events_pending():
             gtk.main_iteration()
         FileCopy.pbar.set_fraction(perc)

file_pc = "/home/guillaume/folder/a very large name of file with space .smthg"
file_pi = "pi@192.168.X.X:/home/pi/folder/a very large name of file with space .smthg"

if " " in file_pc:
   file_pc = fichier_pc.replace(" ", '\\\ ')   # tried '\\ ' or '\ '
   file_pi = fichier_pi.replace(" ", '\\\ ')   # but no way
else:
   pass
command = "scp %s %s" % tuple(map(pipes.quote, [file_pc, file_pi]))
pexpect.run(command, events={r'\d+%': connection}) # this command is using to get the %

How can I fix this problem ? Thanks

Answer 1

Use subprocess module and/or shlex.split():

import subprocess
subprocess.call(['scp', file_pc, file_pi])

and you don't need to worry about escaping or quoting anything

Answer 2

You might want to look into fabric, a Python library that streamlines the use of SSH.

from fabric.state import env
from fabric.operations import get

env.user = 'username'
env.key_filename = '/path/to/ssh-key'

get('/remote_path/*', 'local_path/')

Answer 3

You may keep local file file_pc as is (pipes.quote will escape the spaces). The remote file should be changed:

import pipes

file_pi = 'pi@192.168.X.X:/home/pi/folder/file with space.smth'
host, colon, path = file_pi.partition(':')
assert colon
file_pi = host + colon + pipes.quote(path)

i.e., user@host:/path/with space should be changed to user@host:'/path/with space'