subprocess and & (ampersand)

[Tim Golden]

Steven Bethard wrote:
> I'm having trouble using the subprocess module on Windows when my 
> command line includes special characters like "&" (ampersand)::
> 
>  >>> command = 'lynx.bat', '-dump', 'http://www.example.com/?x=1&y=2'
>  >>> kwargs = dict(stdin=subprocess.PIPE,
> ...               stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
> ...               stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
>  >>> proc = subprocess.Popen(command, **kwargs)
>  >>> proc.stderr.read()
> "'y' is not recognized as an internal or external command,\r\noperable 
> program or batch file.\r\n"
> 
> As you can see, Windows is interpreting that "&" as separating two 
> commands, instead of being part of the single argument as I intend it to 
> be above.  Is there any workaround for this?  How do I get "&" treated 
> like a regular character using the subprocess module?

A little experimentation suggests that the problem's somehow
tied up with the .bat file. ie this works for me (doubly
complicated because of the long firefox path:

<code>
import subprocess

cmd = [
r"c:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe",
"http://local.goodtoread.org/search?word=tim&cached=0"
]
subprocess.Popen (cmd)

</code>

but this doesn't:

<c:/temp/firefox.bat>
"c:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" "%*"
</c:/temp/firefox.bat>

<code>
import subprocess

cmd = [
r"c:\temp\firefox.bat",
"http://local.goodtoread.org/search?word=tim&cached=0"
]
subprocess.Popen (cmd)

</code>

although, interestingly, it seems to cut off at the
"=" before the "&". Not sure how significant that is.

So, even assuming we're looking at the same situation,
I suppose one solution for you is to break out the
.bat file. But that may not be a possibility.

TJG