How to run a windows command line command from python when the command has double quotes

Question

Following is the code I am trying to run

device_editor_path = os.path.join(syntax_checker_path,'DeviceEditor.jar')
output_path = os.path.join(reviewdocs_path,'syntaxchecker_orig_output.txt')
output_path = '"%s"' % output_path # Need to do this because in case there is a space in output_path
# run syntax checker
cmd = 'java -jar' + ' ' + device_editor_path + ' ' + content_data_path + ' ' + event_source_name
if version == 'v2':
    cmd = cmd + ' ' + '-v2'
final_cmd = cmd + ' ' + '>' + ' ' + output_path
# final_cmd_test = r'java -jar C:\TOOLS_UI\syntaxchecker\DeviceEditor.jar C:\Users\patela28\Perforce\content-dev\dev\envision\content\content-data\ symantecav -v2 > "C:\Users\patela28\Desktop\jira\ESU#105\Sprint_27\SMC-112\ReviewDocs&Checklist\syntaxchecker_orig_output.txt"'
print(final_cmd)
status = os.system(final_cmd)

The output of print(final_cmd) is

java -jar C:\\TOOLS_UI\\syntaxchecker\\DeviceEditor.jar C:\\Users\\patela28\\Perforce\\content-dev\\dev\\envision\\content\\content-data\\ symantecav -v2 > "C:\\Users\\patela28\\Desktop\\jira\\ESU#105\\Sprint_27\\SMC-112\\ReviewDocs&Checklist\\syntaxchecker_orig_output.txt"

This command does run but the entire output shown on the command line and is not getting redirected to syntaxchecker_orig_output.txt.

When I copy paste the same above command on the command line it works perfectly and I get a syntaxchecker_orig_output.txt file at the location.

Not able to figure out why this is happening.

Answer 1

You have to start the command processor. Java won't parse for you the command line. The following should work:

device_editor_path = os.path.join(syntax_checker_path,'DeviceEditor.jar')
output_path = os.path.join(reviewdocs_path,'syntaxchecker_orig_output.txt')
output_path = '"%s"' % output_path # Need to do this because in case there is a space in output_path
# run syntax checker
cmd = 'cmd.exe /c java -jar' + ' ' + device_editor_path + ' ' + content_data_path + ' ' + event_source_name
if version == 'v2':
    cmd = cmd + ' ' + '-v2'
final_cmd = cmd + ' ' + '>' + ' ' + output_path
# final_cmd_test = r'java -jar C:\TOOLS_UI\syntaxchecker\DeviceEditor.jar C:\Users\patela28\Perforce\content-dev\dev\envision\content\content-data\ symantecav -v2 > "C:\Users\patela28\Desktop\jira\ESU#105\Sprint_27\SMC-112\ReviewDocs&Checklist\syntaxchecker_orig_output.txt"'
print(final_cmd)
status = os.system(final_cmd)

Answer 2

Don't know the reason but changing

final_cmd = cmd + ' ' + '>' + ' ' + output_path

to

final_cmd = cmd + ' ' + '>' + output_path

worked for me.