Escaping file paths (Windows) without crying and losing one's mind

pip install escape-windows-filepath

Tested against Windows 10 / Python 3.10 / Anaconda

# How it is usually done:

import os

videopathraw = r"C:\baba ''bubu\bab xx\2020-11-23 13-05-26.mp4"

vlcpathraw = r"C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe"



# Quite frequently something like this surprisingly works, but in this example it doesn't:

videofilenotwellescaped = '"' + r"C:\baba ''bubu\bab xx\2020-11-23 13-05-26.mp4" + '"'

vlcpathnotwellescaped = '"' + r"C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" + '"'

escapedcmdnotgood = rf"{vlcpathnotwellescaped} {videofilenotwellescaped}"

print(f"{escapedcmdnotgood=}")

os.system(escapedcmdnotgood)



# Output:

# escapedcmdnotgood='"C:\\Program Files\\VideoLAN\\VLC\\vlc.exe" "C:\\baba \'\'bubu\\bab xx\\2020-11-23 13-05-26.mp4"'

# 'C:\Program' is not recognized as an internal or external command,

# operable program or batch file.





from escape_windows_filepath import escape_windows_path



# The safest method is escaping evey single part (folder,file) of the path

videofileescaped = escape_windows_path(videopathraw)

vlcpath = escape_windows_path(vlcpathraw)

escapedcmd = rf"{vlcpath} {videofileescaped}"

print(f"{escapedcmd=}")

os.system(escapedcmd)

# Output

# escapedcmd='C:\\"Program Files"\\"VideoLAN"\\"VLC"\\"vlc.exe" C:\\"baba \'\'bubu"\\"bab xx"\\"2020-11-23 13-05-26.mp4"'

# And the video player opens