[Tutor] No file or directory error using subprocess and Popen

[Jim]

On 05/15/2017 02:48 AM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> On Sun, May 14, 2017 at 10:57:57PM -0500, Jim wrote:
>> I am running this on Mint 18. This is the third script I have
>> written to open and position windows in workspaces. The first two
>> work, but trying to open ebook-viewe r (calibre) with a specific
>> book produces the following error. If I run the same command in the
>> terminal it works without an error.
>
> I think your problem is that you're telling subprocess to run a
> command called:
>
> ebook-viewer
> /home/jfb/Documents/eBooks/Javascript/GOOGLE_SHEETS/googlespreadsheetprogramming.epub
>
>  with no arguments. What you want is a command called:
>
> ebook-viewer
>
> and a single argument:
>
> /home/jfb/Documents/eBooks/Javascript/GOOGLE_SHEETS/googlespreadsheetprogramming.epub
>
>  I think (but haven't tried it) that the simplest way to fix that is
> to change the entry in self.programs from:
>
>> self.programs = ['jedit', 'google-chrome', 'doublecmd',
>> 'ebook-viewer
>> /home/jfb/Documents/eBooks/Javascript/GOOGLE_SHEETS/googlespreadsheetprogramming.epub']
>
>>
> to:
>
> path_to_file =
> '/home/jfb/Documents/eBooks/Javascript/GOOGLE_SHEETS/googlespreadsheetprogramming.epub'
>

>
self.programs = ['jedit',
> 'google-chrome', 'doublecmd', ['ebook-viewer', path_to_file], ]

I made the changes you suggested.

     def __init__(self):
         path_to_book = 
'/home/jfb/Documents/eBooks/Javascript/GOOGLE_SHEETS/googlespreadsheetprogramming.epub'
         self.programs = ['jedit', 'google-chrome', 'doublecmd', 
['ebook-viewer', path_to_book ]]
         self.classname = {'jedit' : 'sun-awt-X11-XFramePeer',
                             'google-chrome':'google-chrome',
                             'doublecmd':'doublecmd',
                             'calibre-ebook-viewer': 'libprs500'}
         self.open_and_move()

I noticed you have a , between the last two ]],s. I don't think you 
meant that but I tried it both ways just incase.

>
> and see if that fixes it. (It may not be enough, or the right
> approach, but at least you'll get a different error if it is wrong
> :-)

Unfortunately you are correct, I did get a different error message.

Exception in thread Thread-4:
Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "/usr/lib/python3.5/threading.py", line 914, in _bootstrap_inner
     self.run()
   File "/usr/lib/python3.5/threading.py", line 862, in run
     self._target(*self._args, **self._kwargs)
   File "/home/jfb/MyProgs/Scripts/place_windows_OO_WS3.py", line 24, in 
open_it
     subprocess.call([self.program])
   File "/usr/lib/python3.5/subprocess.py", line 557, in call
     with Popen(*popenargs, **kwargs) as p:
   File "/usr/lib/python3.5/subprocess.py", line 947, in __init__
     restore_signals, start_new_session)
   File "/usr/lib/python3.5/subprocess.py", line 1474, in _execute_child
     executable = os.fsencode(executable)
   File "/usr/lib/python3.5/os.py", line 862, in fsencode
     raise TypeError("expect bytes or str, not %s" % 
type(filename).__name__)
TypeError: expect bytes or str, not list

Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "/home/jfb/MyProgs/Scripts/place_windows_OO_WS3.py", line 78, in 
<module>
     Place()
   File "/home/jfb/MyProgs/Scripts/place_windows_OO_WS3.py", line 21, in 
__init__
     self.open_and_move()
   File "/home/jfb/MyProgs/Scripts/place_windows_OO_WS3.py", line 31, in 
open_and_move
     p = Popen(['xdotool', 'search', '--classname', 
self.classname[self.program]], stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
TypeError: unhashable type: 'list'

Regards,  Jim


> The difference is that the shell automatically splits things on
> spaces, so it sees the space between ebook-viewer and the long path,
> and treats the first word as the executable and the second as an
> argument. But Python treats the whole string, spaces and quotes
> included, as the executable.
>
>