i am trying to use subprocess module to run a terminal command which consists of an html file

Question

I am trying to build this script here which will accept a tracking number as an input, build the URL and then get the HTML response. I am trying to display this response in the terminal using the html2text program. I am trying to emulate the command "html2text filename" which is typed in the terminal into my python script, however the raw HTML file is displayed instead of the standard html2text output. where am i going wrong here ?

#!/usr/bin/python3

#trial using bash calls no html2text library

import requests
import subprocess # to execute bash commands

try:
    check_for_package = subprocess.Popen(("dpkg","-s","html2text"), stdout=subprocess.PIPE) 
    output = subprocess.check_output(("grep", "Status"), stdin=check_for_package.stdout)
    check_for_package.wait()
    opstr=str(output, 'utf-8')
    print(opstr)
    if opstr == "Status: install ok installed\n" :
        print("Package installed")

except:
    print("installing html2text..............................")
    install_pkg = subprocess.check_call("sudo apt install html2text", shell=True)

r = requests.get("http://ipsweb.ptcmysore.gov.in/ipswebtracking/IPSWeb_item_events.asp?itemid=RT404715658HK&Submit=Submit")
print(r.status_code)

raw_html=r.text
#print(raw_html)
#raw_html = str(raw_html , 'utf-8')

view_html = subprocess.Popen(["html2text", raw_html])
output = view_html.communicate()
view_html.wait()
#view_html = subprocess.Popen("html2text template", shell=True)
print(output)

Update: I have got around the issue currently but storing the output of r.text in a file and then calling it with html2text

Answer 1

The version of html2text you're using expects the argument to be a filename, not the HTML. To provide the HTML to it, you need to run the command with no argument, and provide the HTML on its standard input.

view_html = subprocess.Popen(["html2text"], stdin=subprocess.PIPE, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
view_html.stdin.write(raw_html)
view_html.stdin.close() # Close the pipe so html2text will get EOF
output = view_html.stdout.read()